


Fate/Stay Night: Desert Song

by GalacticDefender4679



Category: Fate/stay night - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Magic, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 13:46:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18993841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalacticDefender4679/pseuds/GalacticDefender4679
Summary: The Holy Grail War has come once again to the Land of Enchantment, and even though one young mage had tried his best to stay out of it, circumstance and a surprise Summoning make his decision for him. Now he is forced into questioning his ethics and to follow only the Law of the Jungle; Kill… or be killed…





	1. Normal? Never Heard of it...

Ben Klaassen gently cracked his eyes open to see the plain white roof of his bedroom that he was accustomed to seeing upon waking up. What he still wasn’t used to waking up to was the pain he felt in his back… and the sight of his high bed off to his left side.

“Ah dammit, not again,” He’d fallen out of bed in his sleep again, for the fifth time this month. He gave an exasperated groan as he pulled himself to his feet. Then it suddenly hit him again; a massive splitting headache emanating from his neck, almost like his skull and upper spine were stuck in a hydraulic press… which was on fire.

He squeezed the back of his neck with one hand and sucked in through his teeth, trying his best to suppress a scream. This pain was basically routine for him, as was taking the medication to get rid of it. That was the only thing that went through his mind as he quickly zipped down the hall to the adjacent bathroom. Looking into the mirror, he was stunned to see that his neck had swelled out to almost twice its normal size. “Sheesh. When was the last time I flared this badly?” Turning to look at the back of his neck in the mirror as best he could without turning his head, he saw the usual reddish-pink scrape mark, but no necrosis or anything like that yet and he could still move perfectly, so he was good for another day.

With that in mind, he moved for the medicine box under the sink. He knew his way around that thing by heart at this point, even without his glasses. He always thought he didn’t need them as much as the rest of his family did; his eyes were fine without them for at least a few minutes before he needed to put them on, and that was all the time he needed to take his medication, and he always opted for the strongest stuff that wouldn’t send him into a stupor, especially on weekdays as he still had school to worry about.

This pain always made his hands a bit shaky, which made the childproof caps a bit more of a hassle than he liked, but he still managed to get all the prescribed pills and painkillers into his usual dosage bowl (which he found necessary recently given how many pills he had to take). These prescriptions the doctors gave him always tended to be a bit on the bipolar side; sometimes they _helped_ his neck, sometimes they just made things worse. After a while, he figured that taking more or less of everything than the doctors had been prescribing worked best. If any side-effects came of it, he just told the doctor and rolled with it, trying his best to live his life.

Once he’d gotten the bowl filled, he put it to his mouth and tossed the pills back. He managed to get most of them down without incident after about a month and a half of practice, but for the few that remained in his mouth, a quick glass of water was all he needed to be fully dosed. Once that was done, he could already feel the swelling in his neck going down, so he quickly grabbed his glasses and got on with his usual morning routine; brushing his teeth and hair before he got dressed in a set of clothes very close to his usual semi-formal preference; standard blue jeans, a red polo shirt and black overshirt, the white fabric neck-belt he’d made himself to cover the flare-up areas when he was in public and his usual navy blue sneakers. Looking back into the mirror, he smirked. He looked like just about any other 18-year-old boy ready to go to Santa Fe High, if a bit more awkward than usual. No one could see the massive scars on his back, climbing up his neck; results from a magical accident when he was a few years younger… when he tried to learn more powerful magic before he was ready for it.

He was the most able-bodied heir of his family. Even with everything that had happened to him, it was down to himself and his brother to continue studying their family’s magical practices. Without them, their power would simply fade out of existence, remembered only in the pages of Mage history and legend.

A strong reminiscent sigh and he walked out of his room up to the dining room, welcomed on the stairs by the strong smell of his favorite breakfast; pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon. Once he made it up, he raised his hands over his head and smiled. “‘Sup, family?”

Ben’s family was a great group of people; father in financial services, mother stayed at home to provide, and his older twin-brother Abram had theatre connections around town thanks to having taken classes at the city community college the year before. “Morning Ben,” Mom was just levering a plate of bacon onto the table as he arrived. “Sleep well?”

“Eh, had better,” Ben never was one to lie if he could help it. “Really, it’s the wake-up that was a bitch.”

“One of those mornings, huh?” Same old Abram; observant to a fault.

“That obvious?”

“Absolutely,” Dad smiled as he crunched a piece of bacon in half. “Once you’re done with breakfast, you’ll have to haul it to school.”

“Piece of cake,” Okay, so Ben could be a bit full of himself sometimes, but he had a good reason to be. “It’s only a quick walk to the end of the next block; I could make that in three minutes running.”

“Pfft. Yeah right,” said Abram. “It took you seven minutes yesterday, and that _was_ with you running.”

“Dude, you know yesterday doesn’t count,” said Ben. “I was still waiting for the painkillers to kick in.”

“Whatever. Let’s just try not to have a repeat performance of _that_ today, okay?” asked Abram. Suddenly Ben’s phone started ringing. A quick check and he saw it was a friend from school.

“Ap, it’s Tristan,” he said, getting up. “Gimme a sec.” Moving one room over, he quickly picked up. “Hey Trist, what’s up?”

Tristan Gardner was the current head of the school chess club, and he was a really nice guy in Ben’s book, all things considered. “ _Hey man, hate to pull you away from your house this early but I kinda need your help in the club room._ ”

“Did Isaac do something stupid again?”

“ _Do you really need to ask? How soon can you get to the club room?_ "

“Ten minutes. See ya when I’m there man,” With that, he hung up and walked back to the dining room. “Hey, so I’m actually gonna be getting to school early today; gotta help Tristan with something because Isaac, again!, so I’m probably gonna need to make this fast.” With that in mind, he quickly sat down and pigged out on his breakfast before he grabbed up his backpack. “Interested in an early start, bro?”

“Sure, I’m not really that hungry anyways,”

“Cool. Let’s ride,” With that consensus reached, the two began making their way toward the school. Santa Fe High was only a quick 10-minute walk from Ben’s house, which allowed him to prepare for whatever was needed of him this time. Many students came to him with things that they needed fixed or helped with in some capacity or another, and today’s first project was apparently fixing the fan in the chess club's room which had been _very_ broken.

“…Then Isaac took the busted board and started using it to block pieces, but since he couldn’t get to Emily without taking a rook to the eye, he threw the closest thing at her,” Tristan had just finished explaining what had happened as Ben was repairing the fan’s motor. “That’s how the fan got involved.”

“Truly, it was the real victim here.”

“Yes, it didn’t ask for this,” said Tristan, following along with Ben’s joke. “Give it to me straight man, can you save it?”

“Oh yeah, totes. Just needs some tape and a few new bolts,” Then he ran his finger along the cage. “And sweet… delicate love.”

“Your methods are strange Klaassen, but they haven’t failed anyone here yet,” shrugged Tristan. “But I gotta ask, why do you never allow anyone to see you actually fix the thing?”

“Hey dude, a guy’s gotta have space to practice his craft- although seriously if you want this thing fixed you need to get the heck out.”

“Right-right, need to perform your magic as it were,” Tristan, obviously, was not a mage and neither were a lot of people at the school, so Ben could never reveal his power to anyone.

“Yeah. Something like that,” Ben shrugged as Tristan just grabbed his jacket and left the room. Once he was gone… “Fan, heal yourself and reveal your secrets to me.” Once he had said that, his hand glowed a faint red as the fan quickly reassembled itself and fed a swift magical scan to Ben, who smiled at the results. “Huh, it actually _did_ just need tape. Radical! Truly, I do the work of heroes.” With that in mind, he walked out of the room and smirked at Tristan.

“We good?”

“We good.”

“Bitchin’. Thanks, dude,” Then his eyes were drawn to one end of the hallway. “Wha-ho! Don’t look now man, but it looks like you’ve got a shadow.”

“What the hell are you-?” Following Tristan’s finger, Ben saw a young blonde girl at the far end of the hall. “Oh for-! Ha-ha, real cute, Tristan. So Sarah’s got a weird crush on me. So what?”

“Okay, A; I’m pretty sure it doesn’t count as a crush if you know about it. B; You don’t know the half of the weirdness she exhibits towards you.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning she’s one of _those_ people.”

“You mean… a stalker?”

“Bingo,”

“Whatever. Look, I’m heading to class. Anything else substantial comes up, lemme know kay?” The rest of the day progressed relatively easily for the Klaassen brothers that day. The only real oddness was that the only other mage in school; a brunette senior named Jessie Northers, asking them both to meet her in the dressing room behind the school stage at lunchtime. Naturally, they knew what that meant but when the allotted time came, they went just in case to confirm their suspicions.

“Alright Jessie, what’s up?” asked Abram.

“Check it,” she simply replied, showing the two brothers the back of her right hand. Three red swirls were on the skin, apparently almost seared on. One look and both brothers were shocked.

“Wait a sec, you mean-?” Ben didn’t even know why he asked; of course, that was the case.

“Yup. As of tonight, I’ll officially be a Master,” said Jessie. “My parents are already making preparations for me to summon my Servant.”

“ _Ugh. Great. I was trying to avoid the Grail War this year,_ ” thought Ben.

“You know I can hear you right? Twin psychic thing?” asked Abram.

“Dang it, I always forget that!” Ben always hated the psychic link he shared with his big brother, but he especially hated this news. As the most able-bodied child of his family, it stood to reason that _he_ would be chosen in the war. And probably die.

That thought was with him all day, including when he was suddenly called down to the gym to fix a faulty basketball-hoop winch. The project took a long time, especially since he couldn’t use his magic with the gym teachers keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid, and by the time he was done it was dark and he was forced to walk home alone. On the walk, he heard some unusual chuckling echoing around the area. Looking ahead of him, he saw a much younger girl walking in the opposite direction of him with an unsettling smirk on her face. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, so he tried to seem normal. “Hi. Nice… night tonight.”

The girl simply smirked as she passed him. “It would be a terrible night to die.”

“Wait, what?!” Ben quickly whirled around and glanced around to see no one there. “I… don’t disagree with that, but… context, please?! Hello?! Tiny frightening child!?” Okay, so either that was some sort of weird hallucination, or there _was_ actually somebody there just a few seconds ago. Either option is not a good sign in the world of the Holy Grail War.

After a second, he just decided “ _Screw it. Run!_ ” and booked it back home as fast as his legs could carry him to find that Abram had already informed their parents of their meeting with Jessie and they, in turn, had made preparations for Ben to summon his Servant.

“Gah!” groaned Ben as he walked back to the living room and fell onto the couch after undoing his neck-belt. “Man, sometimes I wish we were a normal family. Then again, I’d probably just end up in the war’s crossfire in that case. Still, at least then I wouldn’t have to worry about all this Mage junk.”

“Ohh… so you _are_ a mage!” said a strange female voice. Ben looked up and suddenly saw someone appear from the ceiling. She was a beautiful woman with long purple hair and red eyes wearing a black bodysuit which helped show off her curvaceous body. But Ben was more worried about the massive red spear she had with her. “Get dead!”

Ben quickly let out a “manly” scream as he rolled off the couch to dodge her spear. “Jesus Christ, what’re you doing here?!” Then he rolled himself into a counter containing some minor magical weaponry that his family had collected, including a small hand-ax which he quickly picked up and planned to use to defend himself from this being, clearly a Lancer-class Servant as she pulled her spear out of the couch and balanced it on her shoulder.

“See here’s the thing child,” she said with a smirk. “I was originally just going to attack that Ezburn kid and kill you if you got in the way because… y’know, mage-law.”

“Alright, I accept that. But… we’re mages too,” said Ben, trying his best to get the balance right on the ax.

“That you are,” said Lancer, spinning her spear to hold ready to charge. “Got that now.”

“So… go away?” Yeah, like that was gonna work.

“No-can-do, kid.”

“What? Why not?!”

“Let’s just call it… professional pride.”

“ _Sheesh, this Servant’s smug. Thankfully, that’s probably an advantage,_ ” Quickly, Ben charged the Servant with the ax, but it was quickly rebounded and him kicked out through a window. “Oh, God that hurt! Okay, so not an advantage.”

“So please do tell,” said Lancer as she followed him out and kicked him to the car-parking area the family had closed up with wood walls to convert into a workshop. “In exactly what universe was that a good idea? Because it sure as hell isn’t this one.”

“Yeah I got that, bitch,” groaned Ben as he ran into the workshop.

“Oh no, he’s going into a shed~,” Apparently this Lancer was a big fan of horror movies, as she clearly just called out a tell-all trope of the genre. “What am I gonna do~?”

“Okay, cmon baby, I know we got somethin’ awesome in here,” said Ben trying his best to turn the place upside down to find a weapon.

“Heads-up!” yelled Lancer, her spear shooting toward Ben. Quickly, he pulled out a Roman Parma shield to block the blow but the shield just exploded to scrap.

“Shit!” Ben was tossed to the wall as the shield-bits fell around him. “Aw cmon man, I just built that thing last week!”

“Sorry, not sorry kid,” said Lancer, spinning her spear over her head. “But life doesn’t always work out how we want it to sometimes.”

“Ugh. Y’know what, Lancer? I got a whole can of ‘not your business’ with your name on it!” Ben groaned as he got up.

“So… wait like, the can is my business, but not what’s _inside_ the can,” said Lancer. “…That is a weird metaphor.”

“Realized that as soon as I said it,” Ben admitted. “But y’know something? I never wanted to be a part of this war anyway. I know people in this conflict and I didn’t want to see their friends and family lose them! Even if I die, those people will be avenged!” Suddenly, three pointed red marks appeared on Ben’s hand as he was speaking. Lancer saw this and knew she had to act quickly as she thrust her spear forward. “But as long as I’m still breathing, I will save this city and make sure it never gets caught up in this war again!” Suddenly a large runic circle nearby started glowing and a form appeared from it.

“At thine behest…” it said in a woman’s voice. “I hath been summoned!” Then it charged.

“Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me!” yelled Lancer as she quickly held her spear to block a strong sideways attack, blasting her out through the door. And in her place stood a young woman who appeared in her late teens with a slender body, blonde hair held in a high arrangement and piercing green eyes, wearing an old-fashioned blue dress under a suit of gleaming steel armor and holding what looked like a spectral sword. That was all Ben needed to see to know that somehow… he had summoned the Saber-class Servant.

“Thou art my Master who hath summoned me from beyond the withered grasp of time, born as is the new moon to engage and slay at thy grim command,” she said, turning to Ben.

“Wha…?” Naturally Ben didn’t understand a single thing she just said.

“I’m just doing a bit,” Saber smirked as she balanced her sword in the ground. “I can speak modern English just fine. Now, onto business. Are you my Master?”

“Yes?” He was unsure of what just happened, even when looking directly at the Command Seals on his hand.

“And is that Lancer?”

“Yes.”

“Imma kill ‘er,”

“Wha-?!"

“You aren't going to get this, but I just got done working through some _really_ heavy bullshit with this other guy. I'm going to take it out on Lancer. BRB,” said Saber, taking the sword back into her hands. “Huh. Modern lingo. Neat.” With that, she quickly shot out of the shed with a shockwave.

“Hooo-ly shit!” yelled Ben as he got up and ran to the door to see the two Servants in an awesome fight.

“Y’know, I can’t help but feel a little peeved that I was literally seconds away from preventing a Servant from being summoned!” growled Lancer. “Well, I suppose as long as I kill you it won’t much matter!” Saber clearly wasn’t the talkative type as she simply attacked, with the two exchanging blows all across the backyard of Ben’s house.

“I must say, Lancer, your skill with your weapon is astounding,” said Saber. “A pity your footwork is not as keen as your polearm is long!”

“Ohh _shit_ , that old-school diss tho!” said Ben, giving a gangster sign with both hands. Then he suddenly noticed that the rest of his family was in the lower sunroom watching the madness just as Lancer leaped to one end of the yard.

“Alright, enough of these games Saber! Who are you?! What weapon is that?” she growled.

“Confused? Who knows? Perhaps I’ve simply been beating you with my faithful bow, Lancer,” smirked Saber.

“Oh yeah, sure Saxton Pope, where’s Ishi?”

“My true name eludes you, thus it sucks to be you,” said Saber. “I only seek to expedite my Master’s victory in this war. And the fastest way to do that is for you to die.”

“Well, aren’t we the wet blanket?” asked Lancer, readying her weapon in both hands. “Fine then. Answer me this; what’s your Agility stat at?”

“B. But that’s more than enough,” said Saber, readying her sword.

“We’ll see about that,” said Lancer, magic energy flaring around the spear. “Now stop me if you’ve seen this one before.” Then she shot forward spear at the ready. “GÁE… BOLG!” First, Lancer slashed at Saber so much she was thrown into the air and anchored there before the spear was tossed clean through the Servant’s shoulder, creating a shockwave that almost shattered every other window in the house. Then Saber fell to the ground, severely weakened and with a gaping wound in her shoulder, but otherwise fine much to Lancer’s amazement. “Huh. I think you might be the first person on earth to be able to dodge that move. You must hold a pretty impressive Heroic Spirit to have reflexes that good.”

“A spear that anchors its targets in the air…” groaned Saber as her armor reformed. “Only one spirit can achieve that. You must be Scáthach, the Irish Queen of the Land of Shadows.”

“Got it in one, swordswoman,” said Lancer, readying her spear again. “Hope you enjoyed being right _once_ before you died.” Then she suddenly sensed something that made her face fall. “Although it appears you’ll have a few more chances. I’ll be heading home now.”

“Wait, you’re running?!” asked Saber angrily.

“Master’s orders. Nothing I can do,” said Lancer as she leaped to the roof of the house.

“Wait! Get back here!”

“See you soon Saber,” Lancer taunted. “Try not to get killed before I see you again!” With that, she leaped away.

“RRGH! Come back and face me coward!” growled Saber as she moved to follow her.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa! Saber! Saber, breathe! Breathe…” said Ben, stopping her and letting magic flow from his fingers to the wound on Saber’s shoulder. “We’ll have another chance at her later. Now that we know who she is, we just need to find out how she died the first time and we’re golden. In the meantime, you need to heal and I believe some introductions are in order. I’m your new Master, Ben Klaassen, and that back there is my family.”

“A pleasure,” said Saber, not actually paying attention. “But if you’ll excuse me, I believe I sense another Servant and I still have some shit to work through from my last master.”

“What? Why would another Servant be- Gah!” Ben’s question was swiftly interrupted by another flare-up in his neck, causing yet another searing headache, which made him fall to the dirt, writhing in pain.

“Ben!” yelled Mom as she ran out to him. “Saber, help me get him inside.”

“Yes ma’am,” said Saber as she quickly helped pick Ben up and carry him inside.

All the while, only one thought was going through Abram’s mind. “ _Well, this is a nice way to start the War._ ”


	2. Day of Peace

“Ugh… Ouch…” Ben groaned as he pulled himself up to a seated position. He was surprised to find that he was in his bed and that the pain that had assaulted him earlier was nowhere to be found, with only a minor ache in his neck as a reminder. He was used to it, and it was why he stuck to alchemy for most of the power he required and allowed his brother to study more of the actual magic side of his family lineage.

His vision was blurrier than he was used to without his glasses, but it eventually came back into focus to see Abram standing next to his bed. “How’re ya doing bro?”

“Ugh. Been better,” he replied. “What’d I miss?”

“Well once you went under, Jessie showed up with her Servant,” Then it made sense; Jessie’s must’ve been the Servant Saber sensed after Lancer left. “He was almost about to attack until Mom explained what happened. As of now, we’re debating entering a truce.”

“What about my neck?”

“Still no necrosis and I managed to slip you that potion you made with your prescriptions, so you’re good for another day.”

“Cool. So where’s Saber?”

“You shall address me, Knave, as your king!” Yeah, that was definitely Saber.

“Well, maybe I will once you tell me who you really are!” And that guy must’ve been Jessie’s Servant. And it sounded like they were in the dining room.

“Does that answer your question?” Abram asked flatly.

“All too well, thank you,” said Ben as he got up, suddenly surprised to see he was wearing a pair of simple grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt. Glancing at Abram…

“Yeah, don’t worry. I changed you,” he said. “As much as I’m sure Saber is used to seeing naked men, I didn’t think you’d want to chance it.”

“You’d be correct,” said Ben as he pulled on his neck-belt. “Now let’s go see what’s got her so riled up.” With that in mind, the two walked up to the dining room to see Saber, now only wearing her dress which actually showed how ample her breasts were, and ready to summon her sword.

Across from her was a man who appeared just a bit older than her with scruffy yellow-green hair and gold eyes wearing a red-orange dress-shirt under a black vest with pants and shoes to match. And he looked pretty angry. “Guys cmon, knock it off. We’re in a truce remember?” asked Jessie.

“Actually we’re not,” said her Servant. “A truce between Masters is only reasonable if both Masters agree to it. And given how that other kid was looking, I don’t think our chances on that are looking too good.”

“Hey guys, what’d I miss?” That drew the Servant’s attention as he was honestly legitimately shocked Ben was up.

“I stand corrected.”

“Oh. Master, good morning,” said Saber as she turned to him. “How’re you feeling? That flare-up nearly extirpated you.”

Ben was confused, but then remembered that Abram probably explained his flare-ups to Saber. “I honestly feel kinda great,” He smirked and stretched his arms. “Since you used a word like ‘extirpated’, I must’ve been in pretty bad shape.”

“That is a ‘word-a-day calendar’ word,” said Abram nonchalantly.

“The English language is like the blade in three ways, Master,” explained Saber. “It can cut deep when wielded with competence, it appreciates pageantry, and like the blade, it does not care for gender.”

“Sad thing is that last bit’s actually not far off,” said the other Servant. “Anyways, introductions. I’m Jessie’s Rider-class Servant. Hope that’ll do for now, but I’m not sure I can trust my true identity to anyone yet, even friends and possible allies of my Master. And _especially_ not someone who can take a Gáe Bolg to the shoulder and shake it off like it’s nothing.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that Rider,” Saber pulled the arm that got hit out of her sleeve to reveal that there was still a significant wound. “Ben barely had time to stop the wound’s bleeding before the flare-up hit him.”

“Leave it to me,” said Abram, his hand glowing with the same magic Ben had used the night before. “We usually leave the actual magic side of things to me.”

“Well, I guess that’s one advantage to having twin heirs,” said Rider.

“It actually is,” said Abram, the wound closing up. “But while we’re on the topic, what do you say Ben? Truce?”

“With Jessie? Absolutely,” said Ben as he extended his hand. “Interested?”

“Always,” One handshake and the contract was struck. “But you do have to realize something. This truce is only gonna last until the end of the war, right? Once the other five Servants are dead…”

“No mercy,” Ben finished the thought with the same smirk developing on Jessie’s face.

“Well, now that that’s settled, we should probably get you registered with Father Anderson,” said Dad.

“Aww, but he sucks!” Saber and Rider jinxed. “What’d you say? What do you mean? What do you mean ‘What do I mean’? You know Anderson? How do _you_ know Anderson? I don’t know Anderson; he just sounds stupid! You sound stupid! No, you! No, you!! Fine. Whatever!”

“What just happened?” asked Ben, confused as all hell.

“I have no idea, but it was hilarious,” replied Jessie. “Either way, we should probably wait until tonight to get registered. Y’know, mage law and all that. Meantime, how about we take these guys on a tour of downtown?”

“Sounds good to me,” Abram said, looking Saber over. “Because no offense Saber, but you’re not exactly inconspicuous dressed like that.”

“Yes, I assumed this outfit wouldn’t blend well with this area,” Saber looked herself over. “Is there a good clothing store in the area?”

Ben just smirked. “Welcome to Santa Fe, Baby.” With that in mind, the five of them (including Abram) went out on the town. First order of business was getting Saber a set of more era-appropriate clothes for when she was out of her armor and in public. With that in mind, Jessie took the group to a women’s clothing store downtown.

“Good morning,” said the attendant. “How can I help you?”

“We’re just looking to get our friend here a new outfit,” said Jessie, pointing at Saber. The attendant let out a low whistle as she looked her over.

“Huh. You’re gonna have to come with me,” she said, indicating to a dressing room in the back. “I’m going to need to get your sizes before I fit you.”

Saber glanced back at Ben, whose face simply said “ _Go, but don’t reveal your magic,_ ” before she turned back to the attendant. “Of course,” she said and followed her. Once in the dressing room, Saber removed her dress and simple underwear by hand and laid it out on the bench nearby, allowing the attendant to get measurements.

“Okay, let’s see,” she said, going over the woman with a measuring tape. “5-foot height, 29-inch bust, 20-inch waist, 30-inch hips. Whew. Okay, thankfully I think I’ve got some stuff in the back that’ll fit you. Gimme a sec.”

“Certainly,” said Saber as the attendant left. The next few minutes were pretty uneventful, especially for the rest of the group who were currently waiting in the foyer until finally, Saber came out front wearing a long blue shirt and a white dress shirt with a simple blue ribbon as a loose bow-tie.

“Huh. Really into prim-and-proper dress, eh Saber?” Rider smirked at his fellow Servant.

“I prefer it,” she replied simply. “So how much will this cost?”

“Let’s round up a bit and say 250,” The attendant’s words sent Jessie’s jaw to the floor.

“Seriously? I know you guys are professionals, but 250 bucks for something like this? Are you kidding me?”

“Relax Jess, I can handle it,” Ben smirked as he had recently received a rather large monetary present from his grandparents for the solstice. And he had transferred every cent of it to his debit card. “Just put it on the plastic.”

“Will do,” said the attendant, giving the card a simple swipe in the machine. Once it was read, the receipt printed out and was quickly handed to him. “Sign here.” That part was even easier; a quick “John Hancock” and the group was on their way again, showing the servants around the city plaza in front of the famous Palace of the Governors.

For a few hours, they just hung around in the general area, even walking as far as the library until Rider’s stomach started growling. “Heh-heh. Sorry. I know this isn’t typical for a Servant, but what can I say? I’m just an exception.”

“Don’t stress about it Rider,” said Saber. “I’m part of that minority as well. And to that end, I too must ask; may we stop somewhere for lunch?”

“Sure. What’s everyone in the mood for?” asked Ben.

“Well I dunno about you guys, but I’ve been thinkin’ pretty good sushi thoughts,” said Jessie.

“Same. You thinking what I’m thinking, bro?” Okay, _this_ was one of the moments Ben liked having the twin mind-link thing with Abram. The answer to that question was always too easy to answer.

“Sushi Land East it is then,” he smiled, turning to the Servants. “Hope you guys are used to eating with your hands.”

“Naturally,” smirked Rider.

“I do what I can,” Saber shrugged. Still, a good time was had by all at the sushi shop where they chatted away about strategies as best they could without drawing too much attention to themselves. Finally, they were all full and walked back to the plaza with smiles on their faces and happy stomachs.

“Y’know I enjoyed this outing with you guys,” said Rider confidently. “I think I can trust you with my real identity now.” Just before that, however, there was a loud crashing out near the plaza followed by loud screaming of civilians.

“That’s gonna have to wait, Rider,” said Ben, taking the lead. “We’ve got work to do.” Then Saber stopped stunned.

“What? Berserker? Why is he out and about in daylight?” she asked. “Whatever happened to Mage-law?”

“The restrictions are a little less tense in this region,” said Ben. “As long as Masters don’t leave themselves or their Servants open to identification by possible witnesses, they can attack any-time-of-day they want. But they still can’t drag innocents into it for no reason, so we’ve gotta handle this.”

“Well then, I suggest a more direct means of transport than walking,” smirked Rider, marshaling everyone down an alley. “Anyone has any masks or anything, put them on down here.”

“Good call Rider,” said Jessie as she quickly fished a simple piece of white cloth with eye-and-mouth slits cut into it and pulled it on over her head. Abram fished out a similar green mask and put it on as well.

“Not bad. I prefer to go a little more… flamboyant,” said Ben, snapping his fingers. Then in a blast of magic, he was suddenly wearing a red suit with a vial-emblem on his chest and a simple face-mask. “Call me the Alchemist.”

“Seriously?” asked Rider.

“What? So I moonlight as a superhero,” shrugged Ben. “Sue me.”

“Whatever,” the Servant shrugged as he suddenly transformed his clothes into a black bodysuit and gloves under shining silver armor with a relief on the chestplate resembling an eagle and two olive branches as well as a red-orange sash and a large black spear with a light blue head. Then he summoned himself a metal visor which he slipped over his eyes and smirked under. “Time to call a ride.” With that he jogged out to the street, his armor clanking on his body as he moved and stopped once he reached the tarmac. Once there, he let out a shrill whistle and a large chariot drawn by three horses raced up, allowing him to jump aboard before it stopped. “All aboard!”

“With pleasure,” said Ben as he and the other Mages jumped aboard. Saber, however, was taking a minute to shift her casual clothes back to her dress and armor, but once those were on she used her magic to create a small metal helmet with an eye-guard.

“Alright, I’m ready,” she simply said as she boarded as well. “Let’s go.”

“With pleasure! Hyah!” yelled Rider as he cracked the reigns, sending the chariot roaring back toward the plaza. “Time to truly go to war!”


	3. First Fight

The chariot’s wheels screeched as it skidded to a stop in the plaza and all the passengers jumped overboard to see a large man with burning red eyes and short, spiky blonde hair wearing black pants and a brown leather belt with gold mounts lining it. Aside from the large gold-handled sword strapped to his back, that was all he was wearing. It was clear this person was Berserker, but what really caught Ben’s attention was the little girl behind him.

“What the-? Tiny frightening child?” That obviously caused some serious confusion among his own ranks.

“What?” Though Rider was the first one to voice it.

“Uh, long story. Meantime, let’s go to war.”

“I can agree with that,” Abram shrugged, cracking his neck.

“Same,” Jessie’s magic, in Ben’s eyes, was always the more normal of all the mages in town he knew about (though that was admittedly not saying much); her family could control the natural elements of the world and use them as weapons, either by blasting them or surrounding their bodies in them for physical combat.

“Well, well, well… If it isn’t the cowardly mage from last night,” Ben wasn’t sure, but it felt like that was directed at him. Either way, she then gave a little curtsy. “Allow me to introduce myself; I am Amelia Sylvan Ezburn. And I’m sure you already know Berserker here.”

“They may know of me Mistress, but if they wish to know me personally, I should probably introduce myself,” The giant smirked as he cracked his knuckles and took a fighting stance.

“ _Well okay, she just broke Southwest Mage Law six ways from Sunday,_ ” This was one of the moments Ben liked having a mind-link with his brother. “ _What do we have to look out for with this kid?_ ”

“ _As far as I remember, the Ezburns are skilled with magic weaponry,_ ” Abram replied. “ _They can even summon the things out of nowhere._ ”

“ _Alright here’s the plan;_ ” It was also handy that he had a mind-link with his Servant in situations like this. “ _Saber, you and Rider take Berserker. Jessie, Abram and I will take the kid. But try not to let the civilians get too hurt._ ”

“ _By your order, Master,_ ” thought Saber as she and Rider quickly charged the large giant, who then quickly attacked as well, smashing the ground and knocking them up.

Rider just chuckled at his new position. “Ohoho, Berserker. You just made a terrible mistake.” With that, he tossed down his spear, pinning one of the giant’s feet to the ground before they both landed.

The brute just laughed. “You honestly think that’s enough to stop me, little man?” Without even thinking, he quickly took a large jump with the spear going straight out through his foot, sending blood everywhere.

“Whoo! Well, aren’t we the badass?” Rider quickly rolled and grabbed his spear again just before Berserker landed right on top of where he had been. “Hey Sweetheart, could use some back-up down here!”

“With pleasure,” Saber smirked as she charged and slashed at Berserker, who somehow managed to block it with his bare forearm, releasing a powerful shockwave that blasted apart the ground beneath them. The three continued to fight as the mages looked on.

“So this is what happens when Servants do battle,” Jessie smirked as she clenched her fist. “The earth beneath their feet gives way to their rage and the skies tear open to let their bloodlust spill forth!”

“I WANNA **BE** THEM!!!” Ben yelled. Suddenly, Berserker was right behind him.

“You sure about that?” he smirked as he raised his fist, ready to pound the mage into baba ghanoush. Just before the fist dropped, Saber’s sword was suddenly in the way as she blocked his fist with the flat of the blade before she kicked him away.

“Fanboy over the enemy later Master, please!” she yelled.

“Sorry Saber! Now go kill him!”

“With extreme prejudice!” The knight charged once again and was quickly surprised to see Rider’s chariot running on the air, quickly whacking Berserker in the head with one of the wheels before he slashed across the giant’s face with his spear, though this appeared to do little more than annoy him as when Saber next attacked, he quickly kicked her in the stomach, sending her through the window of a restaurant nearby, sending her straight into the bar and making alcohol leak over her. “Ugh. Ow! Sheesh, what’s that guy’s Strength rank?” Looking around, she saw some of the patrons were scared and confused by her presence. “Apologies for this, my lords and ladies. I’m just kind of in the middle of something. Excuse me.” With that in mind, she leaped back out into the fray. “You think they can handle her, Rider?”

“Hey if not, they’re Mages. I’m pretty sure they know how to use Command Seals,” Rider smirked as he jumped off his chariot, spear ready.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*

 

The mages in the meantime had moved away from the plaza to the nearby street to fight Ezburn, but so far let me tell you the fight was not really going well. Especially since Ben was a bit too wigged out with Abram slashing with long claw-like fingernails and breathing fire at her, growling like a red tyrant dragon. He may have been part of the family, but no matter how many times he saw his parents, brother _or_ older sister like this, he could never get used to it. It was the Klaassen family class of magic: very different from anything he _and_ Jessie had ever read about; oriented almost entirely towards combat.

The Klaassen bloodline was originally driven out of Eastern Europe for trying to achieve one of the greatest taboos in history, even by mage standards; obtain the powers of the world’s greatest monsters for combat. They had originally intended to use powerful magic and alchemy to transmute themselves into said monsters, but it hadn’t been possible for even the grandest mages of their family. So instead they went for a middle-ground where, by minor transfiguration magic and powerful alchemy, they could make themselves as much like the monsters as possible. This resulted in having to learn a lot of alchemy on top of standard physical transfiguration to allow for a very physical form of combat where their bodies were augmented to allow the user to have the monsters’ powers.

At this very moment, Abram was as close to a- oop, he just switched- manticore as one could possibly get. In terms of hand-to-hand, Ben and Jessie could both agree that no one on Earth could even come close to contending with Abram. That’s why he and Jessie were playing vanguard in this fight while Ben was in the back as support. Although “Support”, in this context, amounted to basically just tossing in a few explosive potions and casting a few minor healing spells on the vanguard (powerful enough to work, but still weak enough to not cause him to flare up). The few times he _thought_ he had a clear shot, one of the others would get in the way so he had to hold his fire.

“Impressive you two,” Amelia suddenly summoned several magic weapons, all floating around her. “I should expect nothing less from your families. But I know you won’t be able to stop me.”

“Who said anything about stopping you?” Even with the bestial growling of a manticore in his voice, one could tell Abram was smirking. “We just need to keep you distracted until our Servants can kill yours.”

“That’s not to say you’re not a challenge,” Jessie’s statement was made obvious by the fact that her left shoulder was bleeding and had to be cauterized with her fire magic. “I mean seriously, using swords as projectile weapons is insane, but hey. It works…”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said sadistically. “Your friends won’t stand in the way of killing you, Ben Klaassen.”

“What?!” It wasn’t just the fact that _he_ was her target that stunned Ben, but the fact that she knew his secret identity as well. Thankfully, they were the only ones on the street as all the bystanders had run for their lives thanks to Berserker. “How did you-?!”

“It’s easy to tell for anyone with eyes, idiot,” Amelia smirked. “Even on the street last night, I could sense your magic and how weak it was, and given that, I knew you would never last two minutes in the Grail War.”

“I’ve made it _since_ last night, haven’t I?” he asked.

“Not really much of a milestone in the grand scheme of things,” Amelia shrugged.

“I actually have to agree with her on that,” Seriously, Abram?

“Whose side are you on here anyway, ya dick?!”

“Hey, no need to be hostile here bro.” I’m pretty sure there are several things wrong with that statement.

“Uh, guys? Grail War? Remember?” Aloof as she may be in her civilian life, when it came to magecraft, Jessie always was grounded in reality especially in matters related to the war.

“Oh right,” said Ben. “Anyway, why do you want to kill _me_?! These guys are Mages too!”

“Dude!” the other two jinxed incredulously.

“It’s a legitimate question!”

“I can agree with that,” Amelia cracked a cocky, sadistic smirk. “As for why you must die first, I have my reasons. Northers and your brother here will die as well- it’s only natural that I do not allow any enemies or witnesses to live- but _you_ are my main objective. Even if I lose the war and fall later on, I’ll be satisfied knowing you’re dead.”

“Well, we won't go down easy,” Ben could tell Abram was switching to chimera powers because he could even see the visage of the monster form around him as his tail turned into a snake.

“As you wish,” Suddenly, Amelia grabbed one of her magic lances and tossed it straight toward Ben, scaring the others.

“Jessie, water!” Abram quickly sprouted several cephalopodic tentacles from his arms as the image of the Kraken formed around him. Jessie knew this form was only viable with water, so she quickly pulled as much clean water from the atmosphere and sewers as she could, splashing him with all her might and allowing him to shoot one of his tentacles to the lance and rebound it into the ground. But once it stuck… “Oh shit!” It quickly came to him that this was just a distraction, emphasized by the fact that Jessie was suddenly sent flying at him.

It was a simple matter for him to catch her with how many limbs he had, but then he realized this was a distraction as well, as he saw Amelia had a flaming spear in her hands which then quickly blasted a torrent of fire at the two. Quickly Abram turned to take the brunt of the punishment, but he hadn’t remembered to drop the Kraken powers as the fire boiled away the water he had been drenched in and caused him agonizing pain. Enough to make him suddenly pass out and lose his transformation anyway.

“Don’t go anywhere now,” This girl was instantly becoming number one on Ben’s newly founded list of sadists. He stood stunned in fear, unsure of what to do now. He needed to attack, call Saber, do something- _any_ thing. But he couldn’t bring himself to do anything, but shudder in mortal terror as Amelia turned to him with a face that made it look like she was getting off on beating him and the others to a pulp, and she might’ve been for all he knew. “Now as for you…” Yep. No point questioning it now. It was clear. He was _beyond_ dead.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Saber wrenched herself from the side of the monument in the middle of the plaza as she leveled her sword at Berserker, who was now looking at her with a proud smirk on his face.

“Very impressive Berserker,” she said, spitting out a small amount of blood that had pooled in her mouth. “Even with the Warriors’ madness of your class, you’ve still managed to see through my invisible sword.”

“Well, if I can say one thing about my past life Saber, it’s that I was nothing if not perceptive. Or durable,” Way to go, Saber, you’re just stroking this idiot’s ego even more.

“Either way, I am honored to be facing such an opponent,” And thus begins more ego-stroking. "Ordinarily, I would ask for the name of such an enemy…”

“Well, I would be more than happy to-”

“ _However!_ ” Saber growled, apparently a bit ticked at being interrupted. “Since there’s at least a fraction of a chance you might be one of the Knights of the Round Table, I think I’m going to pass!”

“Well at least you have standards,” Berserker shrugged. “However, I can’t help but feel this battle is a bit one-sided. If I’m facing a swordsman, I may as well draw my own blade.” With that in mind, he grabbed onto the large gilded handle of the sword strapped to his back and drew it, revealing the blade was almost flowing like liquid metal. Rider was nearby, spear at the ready in case it was needed, getting a good view of the situation, and was stunned when he saw the blade.

“ _Damascus steel?_ ” he thought, before using his sharp eyes to get a good look at the handle, seeing the strange engravings on it. But upon realizing what they were of… “Oh! AWAY!!!” With that, he quickly summoned his chariot and rode over, grabbing Saber up onto it just as she and Berserker were charging each other.

“What in God’s name do you think you’re doing?!” she asked angrily.

“I CHOOSE LIFE!” That was all the swordswoman got from her partner as they rode off in the direction their masters had gone. Then upon seeing that below, Amelia was currently choking the shit out of Ben, Rider and Saber quickly dropped from the chariot weapons ready.

But just before Rider hit the ground… “Boot to the head!” He just kicked Amelia in the face, knocking her to the far side of the street.

“Ugh! Ouch. Well, now I’m just angry,” she growled, rubbing her swollen cheek.

“And you weren’t before?” asked Abram, finally conscious.

“Nah, she’s just crazy. And probably feels blue-balled right now, so nice move there Rider,” Ben’s throat was understandably hoarse, but he was also a bit confused. “What are you guys doing here anyway? Neither of us used any Command Seals.”

“I’m honestly a bit confused about that myself,” Confused was the least of Saber’s emotions right now, combined with seething in rage and _also_ blue-balled.

“In summation, if we don’t get out of here before Berserker catches up with us, we are all legitimately 5,000% dead,” said Rider.

“Then it sucks to be you. Oh, Berserker!” The sing-song tone of that last bit made everyone very scared, not to mention the red flash from her hand and the suddenly appearing muscle tower with a drawn sword and an irritated look on his face.

“Come now Saber, we didn’t get to finish our dance yet,” he said with an enraged edge to his voice and a strange twitch under his left eye.

“Anytime, anyplace Berserker,” Saber scowled, sword still ready.

“I disagree,” Rider had just explained his findings to Ben, and he too was terrified. “Saber, everyone; we’re leaving. Now.”

“What?!” the others all said at once.

“Rider?”

“Doin' it,” Without any warning, his chariot suddenly raced over the street and the horses stamping Berserker in the face just as Rider grabbed everyone and jumped them up onto the chariot as he drove it away.


	4. Registration

“Rider, what the hell is wrong with you?! Don't _make_ me use a Command Seal over this!” yelled Jessie.

“I assure you, Master, that that is unnecessary. I promise I'll explain once we’re in a safe-zone outside earshot of the living pile of asbestos that is Berserker,” Rider growled. “Where to?”

“The St. Francis Cathedral,” Ben pointed toward the large church without a second thought. “Servants can’t do battle on the grounds of the church.”

“Sounds good to me,” Without question, Rider drove the chariot out behind the large cathedral and the passengers all jumped overboard, shifting back to their civilian garb.

“Okay, think we’re clear?” asked Ben.

“Should be,” said Rider. “Which means now is as good a time as any to explain our fear of fighting Berserker.”

“I think you should’ve explained earlier, but whatever,” said Abram. “But yeah, chop-chop, let’s hear it.”

“Yes do tell Rider, why did you insist that I not fight Berserker in such a cowardly way?” Sheesh, Saber wasn’t even _trying_ to temper her anger. “I know I could’ve taken him in a swordfight.”

“You honestly think you stood a chance against _Beowulf_ , Saber?” That single statement made everyone else belt up in shock and confusion.

“I’m sorry Rider, could you maybe say that again?” Abram asked, rubbing his right ear. “I think my ears are still in pain from that fire-blast, because I think I just heard you say that Berserker is actually frickin’ Beowulf.”

“No, you heard me right,” It was almost Rider was enjoying this. “So I don’t care what you did Saber, but unless your Noble Phantasm poisons your sword when you swing it, you. Would. Not. Have. Won. End. Of discussion.”

“You make a fantastic point Rider,” Saber relented. “But why did you insist we retreat before you told us that?”

“Well, for one thing, I was fucking terrified once I figured out who he was. And for another… he doesn’t know we know who he is,” Rider’s smirk at this sentence suddenly made the whole thing make sense to the three.

“Of course. Since we’re out of earshot, he couldn’t have heard you,” Abram smirked as well as he put it together. “And now that we know who he is…”

“We just need to do the appropriate amount of research, figure out what killed him the first time, and we’ll be able to kill him next time we meet,” Jessie finished, her voice gradually increasing in excitement.

“Thereby bringing us all one step closer to victory in the war,” said Saber. She chuckled. “I must admit Rider, you have quite the mind for strategy.”

“Well I’m no Odysseus, but I do what I can,” It was at this moment that Rider realized he had just betrayed a crucial fact about his true identity. “Whoops…”

“Wait a sec, you knew Odysseus? That means you fought in the Trojan War!” said Ben.

“And that chariot… it’s the Troias Tragōidia. Does that mean that you’re-?” Saber’s question was answered with an eye-roll and a smirk from the Rider.

“Indeed,” he said, bowing. “I am Achilles the Indomitable. Son of Peleus, and greatest soldier of the Trojan War.”

“Whew. Dang man,” Abram just didn’t even know how to react to this. “With you on our side, we’re unstoppable.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Ben always was a major mythology buff, but anyone with even  _half_ a brain could figure this one out. “What if someone takes a pot-shot at you and it gets you in the heel? That happens, you’re dead.”

“The Grail planned for that,” smirked Rider, summoning his boots, the heel of his left he knocked on the ground. “My boots are far stronger now than they were at Troy.”

“Smart move,” Jessie shrugged. “Well, as long as we’re here, we might as well go see Anderson.”

“Wait, he’s _here?_ ” asked Saber.

“Yeah, why?”

“Then Rider and I shouldn’t be here,” Saber then quickly grabbed Rider’s arm and started walking away. “It’s forbidden for Servants to stand on the land of a church.”

“Relax Saber,” Ben chuckled as he grabbed her arm to stop her. “You have any idea how many churches there are in this town? That’s one of the rules that are lessened for this area. You guys can stick around as long as you want.”

“But we still can’t go inside, right?” Rider had his arms crossed as he dispelled his boots.

“Nnnno,” Ben relented. “But! At least here we’re safe from Berserker.”

“Whatever,” shrugged Rider as he parked himself on a bench nearby. “You guys go do what you’ve gotta, we’ll be out here.”

Ben smirked at the Servants as he and the others turned to the large wooden doors of the cathedral. He always hated coming here, and he would be lying if it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that Anderson had almost gotten his dad killed in the last Grail War. But he was shaken from this thinking when he felt Jessie’s hand on his shoulder and looked at her to see her and his brother giving him an understanding smile. He took a deep breath to steal his nerves and pushed the doors open. “Hey, Anderson. Your innocent lambs are here to be emotionally slaughtered.”

Father Maxwell Anderson never did give off a very friendly vibe. But who could, if he had hair about as black as his heart and brown eyes that pierced anyone’s soul. He was currently reading the Bible when they entered, prompting him to slap it shut and put it down with a deep sigh. “Benjamin. As lovely as it is to see you again, what have I told you about visiting unannounced in the middle of the day?”

“Um, Maxwell, didn’t you tell us that you would do _anything_ for us to make up for almost getting my dad killed?”

“Um, Ben, that _was_ twelve years ago, so maybe you should move on?”

“Um, Maxwell, maybe we wouldn’t _have_ to move on if someone did a better job protecting my dad so he didn’t almost get murdered?”

“Um, _Ben_ , perhaps your belief that I could stop a Servant singlehandedly is a tad… **inflated and unfair**?”

“Um, _Anderson_ , maybe the guy who would’ve blown all my family’s cash in church donations shouldn’t talk to me about **expectations**?!”

“Guys. Be mature, will ya? We’re here to sign up for a war, remember?” asked Jessie.

“Well, _you_ are. I’m not even sure I _want_ to be in this war, but then poof! Saber’s my servant outta nowhere,” Ben shrugged.

“Certainly that’s unfortunate,” Maxwell rubbed his chin. “The Grail has always had a habit of pulling in stragglers to fill the unassumed ranks. Last time, it was a-”

“Serial killer. Yeah, we heard about that from Dad,” said Abram. “But anyways, I’m not sure Ben will be able to do this because… y’know… basically no magic. So if you could just give his Command Seals to me, I can take over for him.”

“Unfortunately, that’s impossible,” Ben knew Maxwell loved screwing with his family, but it was always hard to tell when he joking or not. “Especially at this time. Since you are the seventh and final Master of this Holy Grail War, the Command Seals have become permanently locked to you. Perhaps if you had made it here sooner, I could’ve pulled it off.”

“Well, we would’ve been here sooner but we had a run-in with-”

“The Berserker-class,” The group was spooked by the voice suddenly behind them, but when they turned and saw a tall pale thin man with gold eyes and blue hair wearing an old-fashioned formal suit with what looked like a brass girdle and was walking with a cane. “Better known as the great epic hero Beowulf, who managed to single-handedly redecorate the plaza with your Servants’ bodies and make several among you wish to vacate themselves before you arrived.”

“I… see Ruler’s already been summoned,” Abram was a bit confused at his sudden appearance.

“Ah yes, allow me to introduce myself,” Ruler said, tossing his cane up a few inches before he caught it just below the handle and gave a courteous bow. “Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, at your service.”

“Yeah, I figured that’s who you were,” Ben smirked, trying to be clever.

“Indubitably,” Ruler said sarcastically. “And as Father Anderson said, if you were perhaps a bit more prompt in escaping from Berserker, you may have had a chance to have your Command Seals moved, but since you were as late as you are, I’m afraid you will have no choice but to fight.”

“Fine. I accept that” Ben’s sudden assuredness was surprising to everyone in the room, especially his brother and fellow master. “I already have my wish; let this town never get tied up in a Grail War again.”

“Yeah, the Greater Grail in the canyon basically prevents any and all wishes like that from taking at all,” Maxwell said simply.

“Fuck. Well then, I got nothin’. Can I get back to you on that?”

“Yes of course.”

“Bitchin’. Alright, guys, let’s bounce,” With that, the mages all left the church without a second thought.

“That was fast,” Rider smirked as he and Saber walked over from their bench. “Well?”

Ben smirked as he turned to Saber. “We’re on the battlefield together Saber. Will you accept me as your master?”

“Not like I have much choice in the matter, but I appreciate you asking,” she shrugged but clapped her hand to his in a strong handshake. “I accept.”

“Good,” Ben then turned to Jessie and Rider as they all walked toward Palace St. “So, how’re we gonna do the whole war strategy thing?”

“Well, normally I’d suggest we all bunker down at your place, but I’m not sure how Jessie’s parents would feel about that.”

“Relax Rider,” Jessie smirked. “I already cleared the alliance thing with them, I doubt they’ll be averse to this.”

“Yeah, this isn’t the first time Jessie’s stayed over,” said Abram.

“Then what’re we waiting for?” asked Saber. “What’s the fastest way there?”

“Without attracting too much attention? Well…” Ben was about to suggest they call a cab, but then he thought about how cramped it would be so he thought again, smirking at Rider when his second idea occurred to him. “Any chance you can turn Tragōidia into a car?”

“I’ll certainly try,” Rider shrugged as he extended a hand, suddenly creating a set of car keys in his hand and the specter of his chariot appeared before it suddenly shifted into the shape of a Prius and quickly flashed into a solid form with silver paint and brass-painted hubcaps.

Abram gave an admiring whistle. “Nice.”

“Right? I didn’t even know I could do that,” said Rider. “Anyway, you or your brother ride up front, I’ll drive, everyone else get in the back.” And that’s how it worked; Ben up front and Abram in the middle seat sandwiched between Saber and Jessie, starring daggers at Ben.

“I hope you realize that I will get you back for this,” he growled.

“I dare you to try,” Ben knew that as long as Saber was with him, no one could try anything against him. Then suddenly his phone buzzed with a text alert. A quick check prompted him to groan. “Ah dammit.”

“What’s wrong?” asked Saber.

“It’s Tristan; he’s asking if we’re gonna be at Emily’s party Friday night,” Emily Henderson was another of their classmates who had a birthday coming up in only a few days.

“Ah crap, that's  _this_  Friday?” asked Jessie.

“So it seems,” Ben shrugged, looking back at Saber. “I know non-mage connections are a big ol’ no-no in the Holy Grail War, buuuuuuut… Would a party Friday night between 6 and 2 be out of the question?”


	5. Life and War

The light of the sun shown through the window, reflected off a few particularly shiny rocks in the yard. Sunday morning was always a pain, especially for a person like Ben. He may have been a morning person but sometimes, the sun could cause his neck to react even more than it usually did. Thankfully, it appeared that today was not one of those days; his neck was only barely itching. Either it had something to do with the damage he had taken yesterday, or it was just the fact that it was one of the best nights sleep he’d had since the war began.

In fact, since he had literally no obligations today, he figured he might as well just stay in bed all day as he rolled over to the right. But then he was suddenly met with the open and aloofly stern eyes of his Servant. “Good morning Master.”

“GAH! Jesus, what the hell- Whoa!” Obviously, this freaked Ben out enough to send him falling off the bed. “Ow! Sunnova-! Ugh okay. Saber, remind me again why you insisted on sleeping in my bed.”

“I suppose it depends on your definition of sleeping,” said Saber as she pulled herself from the bed, reminding Ben that she had only been wearing one of his old white t-shirts and her black lace panties to sleep. “If you mean having lost conscious awareness of my surroundings while resting, then I haven’t slept a wink all night. If however, you simply mean laying down with my eyes closed to try and restore mana, then I only woke up about five minutes ago.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Or answer my question,”

“Because master, you must realize that having two Servants attack you within a matter of only 18 hours must result in having at least _some_ security. And if that means I have to sleep with you, then so be it,” Ben didn’t find any way to argue with that, so he just shrugged.

“Look, whatever. Just get some pants on or something and let’s go get something to eat, okay?” This was possibly one of the worst suggestions he could’ve made because Saber suddenly pulled her shirt off right in front of him as she walked over to the closet. His jaw dropped and eyes went wide in shock at how brazenly his Servant was willing to get naked in front of a man. It only took her until she was actually _at_ said closet that she realized her Master was staring at her, stunned and embarrassed.

“D-Do you mind?” she asked, a light blush appearing on her face.

“Sorry!” Okay, not exactly brazen; just prone to spacing out. Without even thinking, he quickly turned away and allowed his Servant to dress herself in her shirt and tie from yesterday and a pair of old jeans that once belonged to Ben’s older sister. Once they were both dressed, they walked up to the dining room to find everyone else already there, and Rider had just laid out a magnificent Greek breakfast buffet.

“Ah, Ben. Sweetheart. Perfect timing. Hungry?”

“Starving,” Ben smirked as he and Saber sat down for breakfast. “Thanks for this Rider, I always did like Mediterranean food.”

“Ah well, I figure it’s the least I could do for you guys after you, for lack of a better term, got your asses kicked yesterday,” The group gave a kind chuckle at that as they all started eating.

One bite and Ben was instantly in heaven. “ _Whoo! Damn Achilles, you know how to eat._ ”

Unfortunately, it was staved off by his dad. “Once you’re finished here Ben, do you think you and Saber could clean up the workshop?”

“Piece of cake.” Ben really didn’t want to have to do that today; he was hoping him, Jessie, Abram and the Servants could talk strategy for the war. But that wasn’t going to get the place cleaned up any sooner. He knew that and he was almost positive Saber knew that as well. Thankfully once breakfast _was_ done, the mages had a chance to talk strategy as they walked downstairs again.

“So Rider, I’ve been meaning to ask; how did you know Berserker was Beowulf?” asked Jessie.

“His sword,” he replied, confusing the others. “First off, there was the blade. You saw it yourself, Saber.”

“Yes it was Damascus, wasn’t it?”

“Exactly. And then there were the engravings on the handle: the crossguard had the image of a flood wiping out a race of what looked like the Titans.”

“The Great Flood that wiped out the Giants. An effort by God to wipe out all evil.”

“Yes, and there were also runes I didn’t recognize.”

“Norse, right?” asked Jessie.

“Yeah. So now that we know who he is, we just need to figure out his weakness- which, side-note, is dragon venom, so we’re set.” Ben smirked.

“Wait, how are we set for that? Where are we gonna get dragon venom?” asked Rider.

“Abram?” With that, his brother simply activated some of his magic, gaining the appendages of a green dragon, smirking with green fluid dripping from his fangs, which he quickly spat into a glass vial Ben was holding. “See? Dragon venom."

“Nice. Welp, looks like you guys have everything handled. Rider and I are gonna go shop for Emily. See you guys Friday.”

“Ciao guys!” And with that, the two left in Rider’s car while Abram went back to his own room to do homework. With no one else to talk to, Ben and Saber promptly left for the work-shed. “Man, hard to believe I was about to die here two nights ago.”

“I would have to agree,” Saber smiled as they both walked in. “But I must say I’m stunned you managed to summon me at all. If what I’ve heard from your family is any indication, you can barely even take the attributes of standard animals, let alone the monsters your brother specializes in.”

“Woof. Uh okay, wow. I know your whole thing is blades Saber, but way to twist the knife. I needed that.”

“Sarcasm is unbecoming of you Master,” she replied, picking up a shard of the shield from the night Lancer attacked. “I must apologize though. I wish there was something more I could’ve done to prevent this.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it Saber,” Ben shrugged. “I tested it with a bow before Lancer attacked and it wasn’t exactly the most viable thing anyway. I was looking for a good excuse to scrap and reforge it and this just did my job for me.” Then he saw the summoning circle that brought Saber into this world and remembered something; in order to summon a specific Servant, a mage needed a catalyst; something from their original life that determined what Servant they did summon. But a quick glance around didn’t reveal _anything_. “The hell?”

“What’s wrong Master?” asked Saber.

“Uh… okay so don’t get pissed off, but I can’t find any sort of catalyst. Which means that-”

“You yourself have no idea who I am?!”

“Apparently not. Sorry. So… not to sound like Lancer, but who are you?”

“First you must swear that this conversation will never leave this workshop.”

“Cross my heart, hope to die.”

“Good. Now then…” She creased her brow as she summoned her sword in its entirety; a gleaming gold handguard and blue handle with a gold and blue church-window design on the blade just below a set of unusual runes. She rested the tip of the blade against the ground and placed both hands on it. “I am Artoria Pendragon, perhaps better known by this modern world as Arthur, Once and Future King of Britannia.”

“Whoa-whoa-whoa, hold the phone. You’re King Arthur?”

“Yes.” Her sword promptly vanished from her hands as she regained her straight posture.

“And you’re a woman.”

“Yes.”

“But then that implies that Guinevere was gay, and also how did you make Mordred and- oh my God, I cannot believe I am questioning this. But also, how did Rider manage to talk me into having us retreat from Berserker? You would’ve taken him down in less than a minute.”

“Perhaps, if I used my Noble Phantasm. Which as you’ve probably guessed is-”

“Excalibur. Yeah, I figured.” Then suddenly his phone went off. A quick check at the caller ID and he rolled his eyes. “Sorry Saber I gotta take this.”

“Be my guest. I’ll get this cleaned up.” And thus she set to work as Ben picked up the phone.

“Hey, Sarah.”

Sarah Tompkins was that same blonde Ben had found crushing on him for those last few months. “ _Uh, h-hey Ben._ ” She was cute and smart, sure, but she was also incredibly shy. And also the relationship he had with her brother Isaac could best be summarized as a "mutually-sustained hate-boner", so the fact that she had actually managed to work up the nerve to call him now was honestly really surprising. “ _I-I was just wondering if you would be open to m-maybe going to the Jean Cocteau with me tonight?_ " Okay, _this_ was just past surprising and straight into “What the shit” territory. Ben was almost positive _he’d_ have to be the one to ask _her_ out, but she managed to beat him to the punch. Damn.

“Uh… I’m not sure how to react to that. I-I mean that sounds great and all Sarah, and if I was free tonight I’d be all-in, but my uh… condition has been giving me no end of grief lately, and I’ve got a cousin and her friend in from out of town and the whole week’s just a huge mess.” Saber gave him a weird look at that cousin comment, but he just indicated at her to roll with it. He could tell Sarah’s face was falling on the other line, so he quickly came up with something. “But hey, does next week sound good? I mean Friday’s definitely a bad day for it cause Emily, and I’ve got a lot of projects for school and the SCA basically the whole rest of the week, but I’m free all day next Monday, so… sound good?”

“ _Uh, y-yeah I guess._ ”

“Look Sarah, I keep my promises. When I say I’m taking you to a movie next week, I _mean_ I’m taking you to a movie next week. But I _am_ gonna see you at the party on Friday, right?”

“ _Oh definitely. See you then._ ”

“Alright, later.” Then he hung up and sighed, putting his phone back in his pocket.

“Trouble on the old homefront?” asked Saber with a smirk.

“Yeah-yeah, laugh it up, Saber. But before you do, just so you know, Sarah isn’t my girlfriend. I’m sure she _wishes_ she was, but I’ve never exactly been very good at the whole dating thing.”

“Heh. She honestly reminds me of myself when I was younger. I believed I was the kind of person who required romance to happen to her rather than seeking it herself.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Finally, the last tool was back where it belonged and the shed was clean. “Either way, are you _sure_ you’re cool with us going to the party on Friday?”

“I suppose so. As long as Rider and I can keep our eyes out for… company.”

“Ah relax Saber,” Ben smirked as he walked out of the shed. “I mean come on. Who’s gonna attack a bunch of teenagers at an open-air hot spring for a party?”

That simply surprised and confused Saber. “Wait, what?”

“Oh yeah, that reminds me; You don’t have a swimsuit yet, do you? Ah, we can worry about it later this week.” This only left the swordswoman with more questions than answers, most of which she wasn’t sure she actually wanted to be answered. She figured she’d just have to wait until Friday for that, but it still gave her a bad feeling.


	6. Party Time

Shopping for Emily had been a lot more difficult than Ben had thought. The simple fact that her parents had hired out the Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort and Spa for the party implied that she was nowhere _near_ short on cash to buy whatever she wanted, and with her grades as good as they were, there wouldn’t be any complaining about her getting whatever she wanted from her parents. Still, he knew Emily was interested in music of any type, but he knew that any album he could possibly think she would like, she probably already had it. He almost got her a new set of headphones, but he knew that any set better than her current one was _way_ too expensive for his budget.

Naturally, he didn’t want to bug the others, so he just ended up buying a few albums from a few bands he had never heard of hoping she would like them. A quick wrapping job and the whole group was in Rider’s car driving toward the spring.

But unfortunately, since the spring was an hour’s drive from Santa Fe, it gave Saber a chance to voice some concerns. “This is still a mistake Master. You’re putting your friends into unnecessary danger.”

“Saber, he already told you that no one would attack a crowded place like this,” Abram rolled his eyes, thankful that the Servant was in the middle seat. “We’ll be fine. Besides, we’ve flaked on a lot of our friends’ other parties, so if we show up tonight it’ll mean a lot to the guys.”

“I understand that, but I still have a rather bad feeling about this.” Saber shrugged. “I suppose I could be wrong though.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sweetheart. I’ll keep my eyes on the perimeter just in case, so we’re all clear.” Rider was the best idea for this; if he had managed to see the engravings on Berserker’s sword from as far away as he had been, he would be the best look-out one could ask for unless they had an Archer-class Servant on their side.

“Now remember the cover-story, Saber; Rider’s our cousin and you’re his friend, both visiting from out of town,” Ben reminded.

“I know, I know. Relax, I’m not going to slip up on that,” Saber rolled her eyes in annoyance. Then Ben looked back out in front of the car.

“Okay, we’re almost there. Just take the next left and there’s the parking lot.” Rider didn’t need another command as he slowly took the turn and confidently parked near the north cabins. Once they were parked and the engine was off, everyone climbed out and unloaded their bags from the trunk.

They were all dressed in a kind semi-formal manner, but Rider had apparently swapped out his dress-shirt and vest for some sort of waterproof Hawaiian shirt and Ben had a muscle shirt on along with a waterproof neck-belt just to be safe. And they all had new swimsuits on under their clothes so they could go for a dip if they wanted. A quick breath to steel his nerves and Ben led the group into the building where he saw his friend Andrew Prescott at the welcome desk. “He-hey, Andy!”

“Ben? Bram? Hey guys, glad you made it!” Andy always was a strong guy, usually able to knock a smaller person to the ground when he patted them on the back, but it was nice to see he had taken Ben’s advice to control his strength to heart. “Jessie too? Man, this place just got even better.” Then his face scrunched up in scrutiny when he saw Rider. “Uh, who’s this guy?”

“Cousin from out of town, visiting with an old friend here,” Abram explained vaguely. “Didn’t want them to miss out. That cool?”

“Totally. I barely even know half the people here,” he smirked. “Cmon, the main party’s at the pool.”

“Bitchin’. But how about we take the scenic route there?” And just like that, the whole team was dragged into the mass of mingling party-goers in the resort hallways. The brothers put on their best smiles for the gang, high-fiving any who asked for one, but they were with Andy on this one; even between the two of them, they barely knew half the people there. Then Andy brought them to the main restaurant, where plenty of people were eating and having drinks and another of Ben’s friends; Joshua Mitchel, at the bar serving them.

“Yo Trist! Look who made it!” Ben looked at who Andy was yelling to and saw Tristan with a glass of something brown in his hand.

“He-hey, Brothers Klaassen! Glad you made it, guys. Man, Em’s gonna love this.”

Just then, Andy cleared his throat loudly before he held out his hand. “I believe this means I won our bet?”

“Yeah-yeah, keep your shirt on ya prick,” Tristan groaned as he put his glass down and started digging into his pocket.

“Wait, what bet?” Abram’s sudden question made Andy give a nervous chuckle.

“Well uh, we sorta bet on whether or not you guys would make it tonight,” he said.

“Wow, thanks for the knife Andy,” Ben said, hurt.

“Cmon man, you have to admit you have a pretty major track-record for missing this sort-of stuff,” Tristan said as he handed Andy a twenty.

“Okay I accept that, but cmon man. Seriously?”

“Look forget it man, let’s just let loose. Yo Josh, get these guys some drinks!”

“Isn’t it a little too soon for any of us to be drinking?” asked Jessie.

“Ah loosen up Jessie. We’ve got the run of the place until two in the morning. We can do whatever we want. Besides, five o’clock was only two hours ago.” said Josh. “So what’ll it be Ben?”

**For reference, that bit is just there for satire. I fully understand and agree with the laws involving legal drinking ages worldwide, so… Yeah.**

“Maybe just some apple juice. Remember my condition?”

“Oh shit right. Uh alright, here we go.” A quick glass of apple juice slid across the bar to his hand and Ben moved to leave.

“You guys can feel free to help yourselves. I’m gonna go find Emily.”

“I think I saw her in the arsenic pool a few minutes ago.”

“Alright, thanks Tristan. Later guys. Oh, and uh Saber? Try and keep a leash on Rider, will ya? Y’know, make sure he doesn’t overdo it with the booze?”

“Understood.” With that, Ben left for the pools and smiled when he saw the bright lights and DJ table surrounding the pool.

Then he saw Emily’s bright red hair flowing in the water, connected to the girl herself in her bright green bikini. He let out a sharp whistle to get her attention and smiled as she looked at him. “Happy birthday Em!”

“Ben! Hey baby, glad you made it!” She said as she jumped out of the water. “Man, I feel like hugging you!”

“Won’t hear me complaining from that.” He just shifted his arms to behind his back and let his black overshirt slide down off his arms. “C’mere, bring it in.” Emily just smirked at Ben before they both wrapped their arms around each other. Emily just smiled at him as they walked along the pool.

“So glad you made it Ben. Tonight wouldn’t be the same without you.”

“Phrasing, boom!” Ben laughed at that; he always loved making jokes like that, but it was always hard to find the right opportunity.

“Dammit! You got me again, you nut!” Emily liked that humor too. “But seriously, you _make_ these parties.”

“Emily cmon, my brother and I usually just hide in the corner at these sort of things. How is that different from us not being here?”

“Dude, parties are all _about_ bro-in’ out! You might not do it, but you bein’ here or not literally makes all the difference.”

“I think you might be misusing literally, but whatever; I get what you mean. It’s like that one thing at an all-you-can-eat buffet that you _love_ , but whoever set it up usually forgot to put it out like an idiot, right?”

“Bingo! Thanks for seeing it my way man. Besides, there’s plenty of fun stuff to do here tonight if ya know what I mean.”

“I… think I do, but I just wanna confirm that.”

“Well, have you seen the northern cabin hallway?”

“Nah, we literally just got here.”

“Well, I didn’t have a bowl of condoms set at the door for nothin’. And I’m pretty sure there’s a certain blonde here who wouldn’t mind disappearing with you for an hour or two at all.”

Ben blushed. “Oh for- Did Tristan let you in on that? God, that is just classic him.”

Emily just laughed. “I’m just teasin’, man. No peer pressure here. Personally though? It ain’t an 18th birthday if _I_ don’t get lucky tonight. I got my eye on this really hot guy too.” Then she scooted in and started whispering. “And between you and me, I think I’ve caught him staring a couple times, so I got him in the bag.”

“Bleh. TMI Em. Look forget it, just enjoy the party.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” She was just about to jump back into the pool before something occurred to her. “By the way, have you seen Jane yet?” Jane Danvers was another girl from Ben’s large group of friends, but so far he had seen neither tan hide nor black hair of her.

“Uh, no I don’t think so. Why, is something wrong?”

“Well, you know how she’s usually the first one to show up to these sort of things? I haven’t seen her yet tonight, and neither have any of the others. She usually lets us know if she’s gonna be late, but we haven’t heard anything from her.”

“Huh. That _is_ weird. Well, maybe something just came up that’s keeping her from the phone.”

“Maybe. Anyway, if you see her, send her my way will ya?”

“You got it.”

“Thanks, man. Cannonball!” With that, she jumped back into the pool, splashing some of the people nearby, including Ben. He just chuckled as he grabbed his jacket up off the ground and walked back to the restaurant to try and hang with the others. But just as he was walking over to the bar to get something to eat (and possibly berate Saber for losing sight of Rider), he accidentally bumped into someone, suddenly making them stumble. Reflexes sharp as ever, he shot a hand down and caught them, surprised by who it was.

“Whoa! Sorry Sarah,” he smirked as he pulled her up. “You okay?”

“Uh y-yeah. I’m fine, no harm done.” Sarah always was nervous around him in public, and it was adorable really. “I heard you made it. You look great.”

“Thanks. You’re not too bad yourself.”

“Said your- Oh wait.” a familiar voice from the bar said.

“Yeah, doesn’t work there Tristan.” Then he cleared his throat and turned back to Sarah. “Uh anyway, you wanna get something to eat?”

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

“Cool. Hey Josh! We workin’ off the lunch and dinner menus tonight?”

“Nothin’ but, my man. What’ll it be?”

“I’ll have some Ojo Fish Tacos and uh, what do you want Sarah?”

“I think I’ll have a cup of tortilla soup.”

“Comin’ up, guys. Take a seat anywhere you want.” The two sat at a booth on the far wall and tried to relax while they waited for their food, but Ben’s neck kept pestering him.

“I-Is something wrong?” Great. Sarah noticed that? Well, no other way out of this now. He might as well explain.

“Well, I guess you’ve already heard about my condition, right?”

“No. What condition?” Okay, this is awkward.

“Oh well, it’s a… little hard to explain.” He clenched his fingers around the refilled glass of apple juice he had grabbed from the bar as he tried to remember the excuse he had given the others. “There was an… accident when I was a kid. Messed up a lot of the nerve endings in my back and kind of screwed with how my spine signals the rest of my body. Stings like a bitch on the best days, but that’s just a simple matter of popping some painkillers and then I’m gold. On days when it gets _really_ awful though, or if I’m too slow getting the pills, I could have a seizure.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah, and in case you’re wondering yeah, that’s why I’m always wearing this thing.” He pointed at his neck belt. “The accident gave me some serious scarring on my back and up my neck. Not a pretty sight.”

“W-Well, are you okay now? I mean does it hurt?”

“Always. But in its least extreme state, like right now, it’s basically just a weird tingling in my back.” It was at this moment that Josh came over with their dishes.

“Alright, we got your Ojo tacos and your tortilla soup. Enjoy, guys.”

“Thanks, Josh.”

“Hey, no problem man.” He was just about to leave when Saber stumbled over with a margarita in her hand and a bright blush accompanying her stupid expression.

“Ah, Josh!” Her voice was slurred too, so it was obvious that she was drunk. “I have _got_ to say, you know how to make a drink. I haven’t felt this drunk in ages.” With that, she quickly slugged down the cocktail in one fell swoop.

Ben just pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “Sarah, this is Saber. She and my cousin Rider are the ones I told you about on Sunday.”

“Pleasure. And this is just me talking, but maybe you should take it easy. From what I’ve heard, hangovers are _not fun._ ”

“Think that ship might’ve sailed already, Sarah.” Josh shrugged. “That was her _twelfth_ drink tonight.”

“Oh for the love of-!” Ben groaned. “Saber, I told you to keep Rider from going overboard with the booze, not to drink it all yourself.”

“Well, you should’ve been more specific. Besides, it’s a party. Can’t a girl let loose every now and then?” With that, she left for the bar. But as she was going, she established psychic contact with her master in a very sober-sounding voice. “ _I checked in with Rider. Aside from the canyon’s natural leylines, the area’s a magical dead-zone. He’ll keep his eyes open though._ ”

“ _Understood._ ” He smiled as his Servant continued over to the bar. And Josh was about to follow her before Ben stopped him.

“Hey uh, Josh? This drink, give her a Peppermint Patty with a shot of espresso. Get her eyes open.”

“You got it, man.” Josh knew from experience just how awake _that_ drink could get someone.

Later on, once Saber had slugged the drink down and Ben and Sarah had finished their food, she walked over with an angry look on her now much more awake face. “I hope you realize I will pay you back for that.”

“Oh-ho-ho, fully.” Ben snickered.

“Um, getting back to the un-murdery part of this conversation… So Saber, how long have you been here?”

“A week. Rider and I just made it last Friday night, and we’ve been helping Ben and the others out with a lot of things around the house.”

“Have you ever been here before?” Sarah may have been shy, but she seemed genuinely curious about this matter.

“Woof. I wish. I barely know my way around our house, let alone the canyon.”

Then Ben’s face brightened up. “That gives me an idea. Why not kill two birds with one stone?”

This just confused the girls. “The implication being?” asked Saber.

“Well, just hear me out here. We’ve been working on nailing down a good date night until Monday, and Saber’s new to town. So why don’t all three of us go out on the town day after tomorrow? Not exactly as intimate as a date, but it’ll be a nice way to make sure all our priorities are met.”

“Y’know, that actually sounds pretty good. Let’s do it!” Sarah said happily as she shook Ben’s hand.

“Saber Ambers; third wheel.” Saber’s dry comment lifted some laughs from the other two, but then suddenly Pitbull’s “Hotel Room Service” started playing over the bar radio. Everyone looked and saw that Emily’s right-hand girl Abby West had slid behind the bar and turned it on.

“Big news, party-people! Birthday girl’s gettin’ _luckay!_ ” A massive chorus of cheers and whoops ran through the bar at that declaration, though not the group at Ben’s table. They were just blushing and trying not to imagine Emily and whoever had the misfortune to be in bed with her in a suggestive scene.

About two hours later, Emily had finished with her booty call and had met the main party in the restaurant for the cake (which, by the way, was Ojo’s epic tres leches) and presents. Once her wish was made, Emily tore into the presents with reckless abandon and she loved them all, giving Ben major praise for introducing her to a new band she hadn’t even heard of before, which in itself was a huge load off Ben’s shoulders.

“Alright folks, how about one last dance and swim before we call it a night?” Emily’s question was met with a bevy of loud cheering as most of the guests dropped their clothes to expose their swimsuits. Even Rider did so and he drew more than a few eyes his way, including Ben; it seemed that his bath in the River Styx didn’t just make the great Achilles indestructible, it also gave him the smokin’ body to match.

“Dang Ben, this guy’s your cousin?” Emily was obviously already thinking of who she might want in her bed for her _next_ birthday as she looked the Servant over.

“Yeah, is that so hard to believe? He’s the best spear-fighting charioteer in the SCA I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

“Whoa. Seriously dude?”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for seeing any more skin. He’s gay.”

“Why did you have to ruin my fantasy like that?” Emily’s face fell as she saw Achilles flex to the girls, making them swoon. But it just confused her. “You sure about that?”

“I… was.” Then he remembered something from his research of the great soldier before him. “ _Oh right, Deidamia and Pyrrhus._ ” He turned back to Emily. “Huh. Must’ve switched to bi before he got here.”

“So then is he single?” Emily smirked.

“Don’t try it, girl.” Jessie patted her head. “He’s _way_ too much for you to handle.” Then Ben saw Saber off on the side, still fully dressed which confused him.

“Hey Saber, cmon. What’s wrong?”

Saber just blushed. “I’m not sure I can handle this. In front of all these men.”

“Saber relax. If they hoot, leave ‘em to me and my brother. We can handle ‘em.”

Saber took a breath but her face was still bright red. “If you insist.” With that, she simply dropped her dress and let everyone get a good look. The mere sight of his Servant’s swimsuit was nearly enough to give Ben an anime-style nosebleed; she was wearing a white two-piece with blue ribbons holding both pieces to her body. Just the sight of this was enough to make more than a fair share of the guys want to get in close, but once one of them tried, Saber just spun out of the way and smirked. The DJ clearly liked where this was going and put on something to fit it.

**(“U Can’t Touch This”)**

This guy just kept right on trying to get a handful of Saber, but she just kept dodging as the others started cheering her for doing it. Ben almost thought he knew who was doing it, but he wasn’t totally sure. But his theory was quickly confirmed when Saber tripped him up into the pool, making him pop back out angrily.

“Ah what the hell, ya bitch?”

**(Cut)**

“Oh great.” Ben groaned. “Just as I suspected; if it isn’t Isaac Tompkins, the biggest _tool_ at Santa Fe High.”

“Ah cmon Klaassen, stay outta this,” Isaac growled as he climbed out of the pool. “She wants this just as much as I do.”

“No, I don’t think I do,” Saber growled. “Now begone peasant.”

“Peasant?” Isaac was rightly confused, but Ben was just worried. “Oh I get it; you think you’re too good for me, don’t you?”

“You heard her, pal.” Rider said as he grabbed his arm and pushed him away. “She said get lost, and I’d suggest you listen to her. She’s in the SCA too. Master swordswoman.”

“I don’t see a sword.” Isaac’s smirk was quickly dashed when Saber ripped an over-hanging branch off the tree into her hand and held it just as she would her own blade.

“I’d suggest you run, Isaac. I don’t think this particular dog is gonna stay on her leash for much longer.” Ben smiled.

Isaac scoffed as he walked away. “Fine. She’s not good enough for me anyway.”

Saber just tossed the branch back over the wall and rolled her eyes. “Try your best to ignore him, Saber.” Josh walked over. “He’s been like that since he started at our school. What say we take your mind off it with a dance?” Then he looked at the DJ. “Hey Soos, you know what I wanna hear.”

“Way ahead of ya, hambone.” Soos Valdes; always knew what people knew what people wanted to hear and this was no exception.

**(“Stamp on the Ground”)**

Once the music started, Saber had to admit she did feel more at ease and she started sauntering up to the side of the pool before it picked up and she began stepping and spinning. Then she grabbed Ben in and dipped him before she spun him away and everyone started dancing as well. Ben wasn’t sure if it was just the swimsuit or her undoubted years of practice dancing in the court of Camelot, but Saber just seemed so cute as she danced around the pool that night. She even walked out into the pool with some of the people in the water offering footholds in the form of their hands as she kept dancing.

But just as she was about to step on Rider… “Psych!” He shot his hands down into the water and she fell right into the pool with a squeal before she resurfaced and started having a splash-fight with her fellow Servant before she and everyone else got back to dancing. After a minute, she could’ve sworn she sensed something; another Servant. But as soon as she turned in the direction she sensed it from, the Servant signature disappeared. But she could still tell what class it was; Archer. However, she didn’t let it bug her too much as she kept dancing with the whole group until the song ended.

**(Cut)**

Finally, almost everyone had left except Ben’s group, Emily, Abby, Tristan, Andy, and Josh.

“Whoo! Man, this was epic.” Josh laughed drunkenly, having partaken of more than his fair share of booze while he was tending the bar. “We have got to do this more often.”

“Yeah, thanks for a good time ladies.” Rider smiled. “This was the most perfect party I’ve ever been to.”

“Well… almost perfect.” Emily said with a slight frown. “Still no word from Jane?”

“Nada, girl.” Abby shrugged. “Whatever’s goin’ on she better have a damn-good excuse for missin’ the party.”

“Hey chill Abby, it’s not a big deal.” Ben excused his friend. “You know how much of a bookworm Jane is. She’s probably just busy with studying or something.”

“Studying for what? That history test isn’t for another week.”

“Nothing wrong with gettin’ a jump on things.” Tristan shrugged in agreement with his friend.

“Whatever. See ya, I gotta go prep for my hangover.” Josh groaned.

“You need a lift?” Rider asked, pointing to his car.

“Nah. Thanks, man, but Tristan’s my ride tonight.” Josh smiled. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything from Jane.”

“Alright man, take it easy.” Ben smiled as he patted his friend on the back and he left with Tristan.

“I better get home soon too.” Andy checked his watch. “If I’m out any longer, my parents will kill me.”

“You can catch a ride with us.” Tristan offered, closing Josh into the car. “My parents don’t care how late I’m out.”

“Alright, thanks dude.” Andy smiled as he walked over to join them.

“So you’re riding back with these guys, Jessie?” asked Emily.

“Yeah, we have to discuss our plans for the rest of the semester.” Jessie always knew how to spin a good lie in situations concerning magic.

“Alright. See ya.” The group was just about to get into the car before Emily realized something. “By the way, where’d you get the cool tats?”

Ben was confused as to what that meant until he looked at his and Jessie’s hands and realized she was talking about their Command Seals. “Oh, these? Ah, they’re just something we got last week. Rider’s suggestion. Why?”

“Oh no reason, it’s just… I think I saw something similar on Isaac’s hand earlier.”

“Wait, seriously?” Ben’s concern at the implications that might have quickly prompted him to watch Isaac carefully as he and Sarah walked to their car. He focused on Isaac’s hand and saw that Emily was right; Isaac did indeed have Command Seals; a strange wing design with what looked like a misshapen O near his wrist. But that didn’t make sense; last time he checked, the Tompkins family barely even knew the Mages Association _existed_ much less how to become members or the details of the Holy Grail War. He figured he might as well leave it alone for now before he turned back to Emily. “Ah, he’s probably just trying to copy us. Anyway, we’re outta here. Peace!” With that, everyone boarded the car and it drove off.

“That may provide answers for what I sensed earlier tonight.” Saber said thoughtfully.

“You sensed that too?” asked Rider.

“Sensed what?” Ben asked.

“Archer.” Saber answered bluntly. “I sensed an Archer-Class servant nearby while we were dancing. Someone’s watching us through the eyes of their Servant, I’m sure of it.”

“All the more reason to make sure we win the War as soon as possible.” Abram agreed. But what he or none of the others knew was that the war was about to take a turn for the worse.

Because across town… “Thanks for the lift, Tristan.” Josh had just left the car and wandered up to the door, somehow skillfully unlocking it despite his drunken stupor, and opened it. “Mom! Dad! I’m home!” he slurred. Once he closed the door behind him, he was confused. There was no way his parents were out for some reason; they had told him they were staying in for the night. And even if they were out, they always left a few lights on to make it seem like someone was home, as well as leaving a note near the door, but Josh couldn’t find anything. Partially due to the fact that there wasn’t anything to find, but mostly because the whole house was pitch-black; no lights anywhere.

He tried the light-switch in the foyer but nothing happened. Not even a flicker. “What the hell? What’s wrong with this thing?” He tried it a few more times but eventually just gave up and decided to check the breakers. Grabbing a flashlight from his room, he wandered around the house until he finally found the circuit breaker in the living room coat closet.

What he didn’t see was someone behind him on the couch reading a book with a lantern nearby. “Sure took your sweet time getting home.” This voice surprised Josh as he turned around and saw Jane on the couch, having slapped the book shut.

“What the-!? Jane? What are you doing in my house?” Josh asked, very confused. “And why weren’t you at the party?”

“Had something more important to deal with.” She said. “Besides, I couldn’t risk running into Jessie or the Klaassens if they were there.” Then she looked off in one direction. “So, how about him? Does he have more potential than his worthless parents?”

“Without a doubt.” A male Austrian voice behind her said. “His magic circuits have never even been activated before, but he will allow me to accomplish great things.”

“What the hell? What’re you talking about? Who are-?” Josh’s question was cut short by the fact that he stepped in something wet on the carpet. Pointing his light down, he saw the substance was a deep burning red. His eyes slowly widened in horror as he suddenly realized what he was seeing behind Jane; his parents lying next to each other, stewing in a pool of their own blood. The overwhelming danger and stench of the situation were enough to make him accidentally drop his flashlight onto the ground and he stumbled back, his fear overpowering the alcohol in his system.

Suddenly, an elderly gloved hand emerged from the darkness behind him and landed on his shoulder. “You’ll make a fine test subject.” The male voice from before chuckled villainously.

Josh tried his best to scream for help, but despite his best efforts, no one would hear him. He may not have known what was going on, but he knew one thing; he was a dead man.


	7. Magical Nutcase

7:43 AM

_Emily: Still no word from Jane?_

_Andy: Nada. Think she’s screening our calls?_

_Tristan: Y would she B?_

_Emily: Don’t care, I’m just worried._

_Andy: I’m headed over to her house right now. I’m gettin’ an answer from this chick._

_Tristan: Alright, good luck._

8:57 AM

_Andy: WTF?! No one’s here!_

_Tristan: Wut?? Doesn’t she live with cultists??_

_Emily: They’re Tenochticans asshole, not cultists._

_Tristan: Same-difference._

_Emily: Okay, so maybe worshipping the Aztec gods went out of style a few centuries ago, but hey; long A-line flares went out of style too, but look at Saber._

_Ben: She’s standing right next to me, Emily; I’m pretty sure she saw that._

_Emily: Oh. Uh, sorry Saber. Look, my point is Jane doesn’t believe in that crap any more than the rest of us._

_Andy: Well, I don’t think that matters because this place is a ghost town. No note, no nothin’! Everyone’s just gone._

_Tristan: Uh guys? I just realized something; has anyone heard from Josh?_

_Emily: Yeah, I didn’t want to bring this up, but I just went over to his place earlier and no one’s answering there either._

_Tristan: Oh shit. Ben dude, is your brother still with us?_

_Abram: Yeah, I’m here._

_Tristan: Alright cool, we don’t need you gone too, man. What about Jessie?_

_Jessie: I’m here, guys. Sorry, I’m late; phone died._

_Tristan: Long as it’s just the phone and not you._

_Andy: Alright, that’s it. I’m callin’ the cops._

_Emily: I’m takin’ my car across town to look. They’ve gotta be around somewhere._

_Tristan: Right there with ya. Ben, can you look too?_

_Ben: Saber and I were planning on heading out into town anyway. We’ll keep an eye out. How about you and Rider, Jessie?_

_Jessie: Already on it, bro._

9:13 AM

_Andy: JESUS H. CHRIST, I hate the cops!!! They just showed up and said nothing was wrong! LIKE HELL NOTHIN’S WRONG, ASSHOLES! Our friend is missing!_

_Tristan: Did you tell ‘em we haven’t seen Jane for two days?_

_Andy: First thing, but they have it in their minds that these guys are nuts and that this whole thing is normal. Not to mention that they want us to wait **another** two days before we report them missing!_

_Tristan: Well, that’s just fucked. Okay, here’s the plan; no one rests until we find ‘em, clear!?_

_Emily: Crystal. I’ll check Uptown._

_Tristan: Eastside's my turf. I’ll check there._

_Andy: I’ll keep searching the west-side for clues. There’s gotta be something._

_Emily: Report back regularly; search a place, give your time and location and then move on. No one else disappears, clear?_

_Tristan: Got it._

_Andy: Whoever did this, I’m kickin’ their ass straight to Albuquerque._

That conversation had been in Ben’s Facebook Messenger group-chat all day. He’d been worried for hours as he checked the group-chat over and over, reading his friends’ reports as they searched various parts of town. The search had begun that morning and since then, Ben was concerned that the others had barely stopped for a bite to eat since then. Of course, the main reason he had been out was to hunt down other Servants and Masters, but so far that search had turned up unfruitful. By the time Ben, Abram and Saber returned to the roof of the museum in the plaza to meet up with Jessie and Rider to compare notes, night had fallen and the darkness was consuming the town, not to mention a strange mist, both of which would make continuing the search today difficult.

“Still worried about them?” Rider asked nonchalantly.

“Yeah, sorry.” Ben shrugged as another location update popped up on his phone. “I’m trying my best to focus on the war; really I am, but…” His grip tightened around his phone until he felt a gauntleted hand placed on his shoulder as if trying to calm him. He looked and saw the hand belonged to his Servant.

“You have loyalty to your friends, Master.” Saber smiled at her Master. “I respect that; it’s hardly anything to be ashamed of.” Ben smiled at Saber before he returned to looking out over town with a stern glare. “I trust you wish to continue our search?”

“Yeah, I mean we’ve searched Downtown pretty thoroughly so far, but… who knows? Maybe some other Master captured them to fuel their Servant with their souls or something.”

“Well, so far the only Master we know the _definite_ location of is Amelia,” Abram remembered what he had read earlier that week. “They have a mansion out in El Dorado with a magic barrier around it powerful enough to tank getting Hiroshima-ed.”

Saber suddenly looked at the young man. “I… don’t know what ‘Hiroshima-ed’ is.”

“Me neither.” Rider shrugged. “Meh. I guess the Grail doesn’t deem it relevant information for a Servant.”

“That’s somehow both very ignorant and very progressive of the Grail.” Jessie acquiesced, genuinely disturbed.

“In any case, Berserker-class Servants don’t need to feed on innocent souls to maintain their forms,” Ben recalled from his readings of the various classes. “Must be someone else.”

“Even so, Saber and I have searched the entire city and aside from Berserker and Ruler, we haven’t sensed a single other Master _or_ Servant.” Rider growled. “And I personally don’t like what that implies.”

“I agree.” Saber nodded. “The Holy Grail War has officially begun, so we should’ve at least found some sort of trace of Master or Servant waiting to start up a fight. Yet we have not, and I am sad because of that.”

“It’s entirely possible the other Masters are just laying low for right now.” Abram shrugged. “They probably at least _heard_ about our fight with Ezburn and Berserker, so they’re either biding their time until _he’s_ dealt with, or they’re just waiting for one of us to get tired-out enough for them to jump in and kill us without much effort.”

“If that’s true, then this war will be dragged out for a _long_ while.” Saber remarked, slinging her invisible sword onto her shoulder. “It’s the fact that we couldn’t find Lancer that disturbs me the most. Ever since she attacked Ben at home, she hasn’t appeared _once_. I suspect there may be more going on here than we’re aware of.”

Ben glanced at his phone as another update popped up, but after that, he just stared at the screen for a few seconds before Saber came to a resolution. “Well, I think that’s enough Servant-hunting for tonight.”

“What?” Ben asked in confusion.

“Tonight was a good effort, so I doubt anyone would argue if we switched priorities.” Saber smiled slyly. “Unless of course, you don’t want to go looking for your bros. Bros… would never have thought to use that word there.”

“You’re… still acclimating to all the modern slang the Grail taught you.” Ben noticed.

“Fo’ shizzle.” Saber remarked seriously, making Abram start to crack up.

“It takes a while.” Rider shrugged.

“But seriously, are you okay with us looking for the others?” asked Ben.

“Absolutely.” Saber replied. “It’s been a quiet night, and I’m not ready to call it quits just yet.”

“I have one last idea for where to check, so Rider and I can head over that way,” Jessie remarked.

“And I’ll head home and make sure the barrier is up, just in case,” Abram added. “You guys go on ahead and look for the guys; I’ll catch up.”

“Thanks, guys. We’ll keep up this Master-search another day.” Ben smiled.

“Alright then. If you guys end up in any sort of trouble, just send out a mana-burst and we’ll come running.” Jessie smiled.

“Got it.” He turned to his Servant. “Saber, we should hit Jane’s place first. Andy may not have seen anything wrong, but he doesn’t have magic, so we should be able to piece something together.”

“A sensible plan.” Saber smiled as she wrapped an arm around her Master’s waist, pulling him to her body. Ben could’ve sworn he saw a blush appear on his face when she did this, but it may have just been the fog. “Whenever you’re-” Suddenly she stopped, as if frozen. She turned to the lance-bearing Greek next to her. “Rider?”

“Yeah. I sense it too,” he remarked.

“Sense what?” asked Abram.

Rider looked down at the mist on the ground with a glare. “Assassin.” This made the others worried. “That class is incredibly dangerous, not just for their skills with weapons, but also their stealth. Even if they may need to materialize to launch an attack, it hardly matters.”

“Think they’ve sensed us?” asked Jessie.

“Not yet.” Rider looked around as if scanning the ground. “If they had, they would’ve attacked already.”

“Still, at least we have a viable suspect,” Ben remarked positively. “Anyway, as long as he hasn’t noticed us yet, we should be fine. Saber?”

Saber was concerned about what Assassin’s presence might mean, but she wasn’t about to argue with her Master. “Very well. You direct, I jump.”

“Alright, let’s go.” With that, Saber jumped from the roof towards Jane’s house. Rider did the same in a different direction with Jessie under his arm and Abram quickly sprouted dragon-wings and flew away as carefully as he could to avoid being spotted.

Jane’s house was… well, it was less a house and more a run-down apartment building near Warehouse 21 in the city railyard converted into living quarters for a large mass of people. Locals called it “The Compound”, as that’s basically what it was; a compound used as the Santa Fe home for Tenochticism; worship of the ancient Aztec Gods, involving rituals and living rights regularly throughout the year. The police had been called to the Compound several times throughout the city’s history, but no charges were ever filed as nothing illegal was ever found.

The inhabitants of the Compound all paid what they were asked, followed the laws of man, treated their families with love and respect, and every aspect of their lives required that the people in the region not judge them based on their practices. The people of the city eventually left them alone, despite the unease at their practices. This was the environment Jane Danvers was born into, and despite her parents’ devotion to their religion, Jane herself remained skeptical.

And given the scene, Saber and Ben were met with when they landed, it was no wonder. They had landed just down the train-tracks from the Compound, and still, Saber instantly sensed something strange. “This isn’t right,” she muttered. “It’s too quiet.”

“What do you mean?” asked Ben, not hearing anything aside from a quiet wind.

“You’ve told me this area is humming with activity, even at night, but listen;” Ben listened as Saber told him to and was surprised by what he was met with; there was no sound of any activity. Even the Rail Runner train was quiet. He gave a fearful gulp at this realization. “Exactly.” Saber summoned her sword to her hand as an extra precaution. “I suggest we approach with caution.”

“Hang on a sec, Saber,” Ben said, commandingly. “You stay here. I have a sneaking suspicion we’re being watched from somewhere nearby. You stay here and make sure no one tries to knife me when I’m not looking.”

“As you wish, Master.” Saber relented. “But at the first sign of trouble, I’m right there with you.”

“I would expect nothing less.” Ben nodded as he walked up to the Compound’s door, apparently not even barred by the police yet. Shrugging as he remembered what Andy had said that morning, he opened the door and walked in, leaving it open behind him just to be safe. Unfortunately, the Compound was as quiet _inside_ as it was _outside_ so he decided to go out back to the courtyard. Once he closed the back door however, he suddenly heard something he wasn’t expecting; classical music. “What the-?” He could tell it was coming from the small replica Aztec church in the back of the yard, so he figured that maybe the evening worshippers were changing their musical tastes for the evening. He opened the door to the church and was surprised to find that the people there were barely even breathing, but that the music was still playing.

Curious, he checked on one of the people in the back row but there was just one problem; he was **_unbelievably_** dead, as was everyone else. After that, he put it together and sighed in exasperation. “Alright. Cue the Servant.”

“Getting used to the Grail War Grind, I see.” A male figure appeared before Ben at the sacrificial altar at the end of the aisle, and he was not at all what the young man was expecting; a pale man with long pale blonde hair and blue eyes dressed in an old-fashioned suit with some sort of flamboyant gold vest and a black-and-purple wolf-pelt draped over his shoulders. He gave an impertinent chuckle at the young man.

Outside the building, Saber was getting worried about her Master so she moved to the door. “Master? Uh, just checking to make sure nothing happened to you, aaand you’re gone,” she said this part in a sense of anger. “Of course you’re gone; I leave your side for literally three seconds and a Servant gets you.”

“We’re down to Caster and Archer,” Ben remembered while staring down his new opponent. “Taking a look at you, I’m guessing I don’t have to worry about a bowman right now.”

“A clever guess, my boy.” The Servant, now definitely identified as Caster, replied with a smile. “I am indeed the Caster-Class Servant of this Holy Grail War.”

“I figured. And I could honestly care less who or what you are.” Ben answered, grabbing a small fire-potion vial behind his back. “I’m just here for Jane Danvers.”

“And Joshua Mitchel as well, correct?” Ben was surprised by this until Caster moved aside to show that Josh was tied to the sacrificial table.

“Josh!” Ben yelled in happy surprise as he ran to his friend, who suddenly awoke and looked at Ben.

“Ben? Wait, don’t!” His warning came too late as the young man suddenly became entangled in strange wires, which briefly became visible to reveal they were music staves, restraining him and pulling him to sit down in the front pew.

“Pfft. Wow, I’m honestly kinda shocked you fell for that.” Ben was stunned; he’d recognize that voice anywhere, but he really didn’t want to have to recognize it here. But much to his dismay, from behind the large table, holding a sacrificial knife, was the very girl he had been looking for. “Seriously, who falls for such an obvious trap, Caster?”

“Only an idiot, Master.” The Servant shrugged.

“Jane?” Ben was rightly surprised as he saw the red mark on his friend’s hand. “What the hell is going on here? You’re a Mage too?”

“Indeed I am. And I plan to win this Holy Grail War.” Jane nodded.

“But then, why did you need Josh?” Ben asked rationally.

“Yeah, exactly!” Josh butted in. “Why do you need me for this whatever-it-is?”

Jane rolled her eyes at Josh’s ignorance. “Shut him up, will you Caster?”

“I’d be happy to, but we still need a human sacrifice, do we not?” Caster smiled, looking at Josh’s stunned and speechless expression. “Oh. Well, that works too, I suppose.”

“What do you mean, sacrifice?” asked Ben.

Jane looked at Ben with an expression that read “ _Are you serious?_ ” before she started laughing cruelly. “Wow, you really are clueless aren’t you? And you’re supposed to be the Master of the Saber-Class Servant?” She just laughed even louder as she realized the truth of this.

“Hey, cmon! I’m serious, dammit!” Ben growled, suddenly feeling the staves constricting around him even tighter. His affirmation of seriousness just made Jane start laughing harder than before until she finally got herself under control.

“Okay. Okay, I’m sorry. I- I shouldn’t be laughing at an opponent. It’s- It’s hardly courteous.” Jane smiled. “Anyway, you know that the Holy Grail requires a vessel, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Ben affirmed. “But I thought it was always, like, an actual cup.”

“It _was,_ but something so meager can hardly defend itself, so instead Mages have resorted to vessels with a mind and will to live.” Jane smiled sadistically, pointing to Josh. “Case in point…”

“Wait, so you’re going to kill him just so you can use the Grail and get your wish?” asked Ben.

“Obviously. And as you are my prisoner as well, I suppose I may as well tell you that my wish is, well, a normal life.” Jane lamented. “I want a life free of this madness of the Grail War; a life where I don’t have to worry about getting killed by any of my friends. A life where my family is simple atheists and I can just go about my life without any major worry.”

Ben’s face fell upon hearing that. “I can understand that, but is that sort of life really worth killing one of your friends?”

Jane scoffed. “Friends? These magicless idiots are barely more than cattle for slaughter.” she scoffed. “If you think of them as friends, fine. But as for me… well… I’d rather have my wish if you don’t mind.”

“Alright, but why am I here?” Ben asked.

“I simply want a fellow Mage to bear witness to their better’s victory in the Holy Grail War.” Jane smiled. Suddenly, the doors opened again.

“Well then… how about having a Servant present as well?” Ben snapped up at this voice and was surprised by the being he saw at the door.

“Rider? What are you doing here?” asked Caster.

“No actually, what are you doing here?” asked Ben as the Servant walked up the aisle.

“I sensed something going down in this area so I came to check it out.” Rider smiled. “Imagine my surprise when I found not only our quarry here, but also you _and_ three Servants.”

“Wait, three?” asked Ben.

“How did you get past him?” asked Caster. “He was ordered not to allow _any_ other Servants inside.”

“Simple.” Rider smirked. “I told him a more capable swordsman was on their way.”

“Damn that man and his battle-fetish!” Caster growled in anger.

Outside, Saber was running through the Compound out to the courtyard with only one thing on her mind. “ _Hang in there, Ben. I’m coming._ ” Once she breached the back door, she saw the church at the back of the courtyard, but also a Hispanic man in all black with a simple black head-mask over his eyes under a black sombrero cordobés with a small pencil mustache on his face, an ornate rapier at his hip, two flintlock pistols and a knife on his belt.

“Welcome, at last, my opponent,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you.” Saber quickly raised her sword, ready to strike.

“Identify thyself, Servant!” she barked. “What class art thou?”

“Me?” the Servant asked, giving a small humorless chuckle. “I think this blade I carry should make it obvious…” He quickly drew said blade to reveal it to be long and slender. “…that I am the Saber-Class Servant.”

“…’K.” Saber replied, reasonably not believing him. “Except you’re not.”

“I am more than willing to back up my claims.” This Servant seemed very confident, and more than prepared to do battle. “But first, identify _your_ self.”

Saber lowered her sword for a second as she knew this was going to hurt her just as much as it would him. “Friend… I’m sorry about this, but… _I’m_ Saber.”

Faced with this, the Servant groaned and rubbed his eyes under his mask. “Ay-ay-ay, okay; I’m Assassin.” he relented. “But look, could you _not_ go around telling people that you’re Saber?” Saber was confused by this. “I’m not- I don’t _feel_ like an Assassin, and- Look, just- how many people have you told you’re Saber?”

“Lancer, Rider and Berserker.” Saber listed honestly.

“So Rider lied to me,” Assassin growled angrily. “Right, so then we don’t tell Archer.”

“Is this important to you?” Saber asked.

“Very much so, si.” Assassin replied candidly.

Saber shrugged. “Eh. You seem like a nice enough guy. I’ll be vague if I meet Archer.”

“Muchas gracias.” Assassin bowed respectfully, giving a flourish of his hat. “You are blessed with manners to match your beauty.” Saber blushed a small bit at the compliment as Assassin stood back up. “But back to the matter at hand… one way or another, you shall have to best my blade to advance!”

“So be it!” Saber roared as she charged her opponent, clashing blades with the black-clad warrior for a good few seconds before she grabbed hold of her opponent’s sword with one hand.

“Ho- _Ho!_ ” Assassin smiled as he knocked Saber away, cutting her hand. “What skill! To grab hold of my blade with such dexterity…”

“And you knocked me loose so readily! As if you’d seen it done a thousand times before!” Saber smiled as her hand-wound healed. “Well done to you, good sir!”

“I’m having a very fun time right now, Saber.” Assassin smiled.

“As am I, Other Saber!” Saber smiled back.

Assassin smirked. “Flattery will get you _everywhere_ , señorita.” Then he pointed over his shoulder. “Except, of course, into that church.”

“Oh, that?” Saber smiled. “I could’ve gotten in there anytime I wanted; no need to best you.” Then she locked her hands onto her blade. “But since you are so insistent…” Saber suddenly charged up next to the dark fencer and bashed him aside with one swing of her sword, before kicking the door down. “Sorry, I’m late Master. What’d I miss?”

“Oh not much.” Ben shrugged. “Jane is Caster’s Master, and she’s going to try and use Josh as a vessel for the Grail.”

“Okay, that um… that is definitely news, yes.” Saber nodded, equally surprised.

“Seriously.” Rider shrugged. “I’m honestly surprised you managed to get past Alternate Saber outside.”

“Wait, what?” asked Ben.

“Long story, we’ll explain later.” Rider indicated.

“Oh him? Pfft. He was nothing.” Saber smiled. “Now go get help.” Rider nodded and quickly ran out of the complex. “Now then… Caster…” Saber looked the villain over. “I must admit you’re not what I expected.”

“And what _did_ you expect exactly?” asked Caster.

“I dunno, maybe a beard or something?” Saber shrugged.

“Yeah, I tried that in my real life once; didn’t really work out.” Caster shrugged in return. “But back to the matter at hand… I assume you’re here to try to liberate the boy and slay me, am I wrong?”

“Indeed not.” Saber nodded.

“Well, I’d advise against it.” Jane raised her hand. “Or do you not care about your Master’s wellbeing?” With that, she snapped her fingers and Caster suddenly tightened down on Ben’s restraints, slashing through his clothes and starting to draw blood, making him scream in pain. Saber glanced at him in rage before she turned back to Caster and Jane. “I thought so. Now lower your weapon.”

Saber growled at the enemy, every fiber of her being telling her to charge and destroy Caster _and_ his Master before they could kill Ben. But she knew that any sort of attack she could pull that would destroy them both at once would take far too long to prepare and even then, they would know what she was doing a mile away. Even if she unleashed the full might of her Noble Phantasm, it wouldn’t be enough to stop them from killing Ben.

Ben growled in pain, blood trickling down his body. This wasn’t the worst pain he’d felt in the last few months but it was definitely up there. Still, he could handle it. He just couldn’t believe what was going on here; Jane was a Mage?! This was impossible. If she _was_ , he and the others would’ve found out sooner. He grit his teeth trying to think of some way out of this until it hit him; the Command Seals! Unbreakable absolute orders to make Saber do whatever he needed her to. If there was ever a time to use them, it was now. He was just about to use one when pain shot through his spine, sending him falling to the ground writhing in pain.

Jane placed a foot on top of his shoulder, making him wince. “If you even _think_ about using a Command Seal, I’ll take them _and_ your hand.”

“She’ll do it too.” Caster smirked. “I’ve boosted her combat abilities with my magic to levels beyond any mortal on Earth.”

“Worthless rat,” Saber growled. “You dare turn Ben’s friend into your puppet?”

“‘Puppet’?” Caster cracked a smile. “Did you hear that, Master? She thinks I’m controlling you.”

“Huh. Cute.” Jane said humorlessly, turning to Saber. “Now then… I believe I told you to stand down. And I hate to repeat myself.” Saber growled at this order, still knowing she was out of stalling time. She loosened her grip on her sword and left her combat stance. “Well. It’s a start. Now drop your armor and weapons.” Saber clenched her fist in anger at this impertinent order, but she remembered her Master under the foot of one he once called a friend. She squeezed her eyes shut to try and hold back angry tears but did as she was ordered, allowing her armor and blade to dematerialize, leaving her in only her blue under-armor gown. “Good. Now kneel.” Saber scowled at the monster ordering her around She looked to her Master with small tears in her eyes, as if apologizing for surrendering, but she did as she was told and knelt before Caster. “Good girl.”

“What the hell is going on here?” asked Josh, confused at Saber’s behavior.

“Don’t speak, Mitchell; you lower the IQ of the entire railyard.” Caster smirked. “Besides, you’re far too dull to understand anything any of us have to say to you.” He turned to his Master. “Now then… Jane, shall we make this maiden into a mindless slave or shall we allow her to retain _some_ faculty awareness but remain fully loyal?”

“I have you. What need have I for her to think for herself?” Jane returned.

“Mindless slave it is then.” Caster smiled as he pulled a conductor’s baton from his left sleeve. “Now then my dear, prepare to listen. To the sound of a demon. Requiem…” Ben’s eyes shot open as he recognized this. “For…” A single tear dropped from Saber’s eye onto the floor as she allowed her this curse to destroy her mind. “Death!”

**(Play “Requiem in D Minor”)**

With that command, magical music-scales dotted with notes flowed from his sleeves to the ears of the submitting Servant. Suddenly her eyes shot open as she suddenly gripped her head and started groaning in pain which echoed from every nerve ending in her being. Ben growled as he watched his Servant writhe in agony as the music poisoned her mind.

He remembered when he was younger, reading the story of his new Servant and what she had gone through in her previous life; treason, usurpation, death. He would not allow this to continue, no matter what. He drew on every ounce of Mana he could, ignoring the pain from his binds and his neck, and drew it all into his muscles, focusing on the power of the Minotaur.

Unfortunately, this didn’t go unnoticed by Jane who was starting to get concerned. “What do you think you’re doing? I told you that if you tried anything, I’d take your hand.”

“ _Then go ahead,_ ” Ben growled like a beast, ignoring the pain. “ _Take it already!_ ” His muscles bulged through his torn clothes and they burst through Caster’s binds. Noticing this, the wizard quickly accelerated his Noble Phantasm as best he could, but it was too late; a massive fire burst through Ben’s body, manifesting as a large burst of magic power, flaring from his neck. His mana dulled all his pain as he focused on only one thing and raised his hand.

“Saber! By the Power of my Command Seal, I order you!” he yelled, the Seal glowing in burning red. “Whatever it may take, I order you! Obliterate the Caster-class known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart!” His Seal disappeared and Saber burst free from Caster’s magic, the scales disappearing as Caster looked at Ben aghast.

**(Cut it)**

“What?!” he asked, an Austrian accent slipping into his voice. “How did you know who I am?”

“Your musical reputation precedes you, Mein Herr,” Ben smirked. “Now Saber, follow your orders! Destroy him!”

Saber smirked, summoning her armor to her without a moment’s hesitation. “As you command, Master.” Then she summoned her sword to her hand, allowing it to become visible as she held it before her face. “The gathering breath of the star. The shining torrent of life.” Then she swiftly raised her blade, now burning with magic, above her head. “Take this! EXCALIBUR!!!” With that, she brought her sword down with a powerful slash, magic burning out in a massive blast aimed directly at Caster. But just before it could make contact, a flash of black suddenly shot through the door up to the altar.

“Olé!” it yelled, drawing a magnificent rapier. “Et voilà! La Marca del Zorro!” Three loud rings of a blade were heard at once as a massive blazing Z blasted Saber’s Noble Phantasm away and a massive gash was cut into Saber’s right arm and on one of her legs.

“GAH!!!” she yelled, falling back onto one knee and grasping a hand to her arm. She hesitantly moved her hand to see a Z-shaped mark slashed into her wrist.

“Well now, _that_ was just unlikely,” Jane smirked.

“Though not unwelcome.” Caster smiled, placing a hand on Assassin’s shoulder. “Excellent timing, Zorro.” The Assassin simply tipped his hat and smiled as he sheathed his sword. Ben groaned as the pain from his back came to him and he fell to the ground, exhausted. Caster turned to Saber, who was still working on healing her wound “Credit where it’s due, Saber; that was quite the impressive gambit your Master pulled there; expending all his mana to activate a single Command Seal. Impressive, but ultimately futile; he can barely stand anymore and now you’re too wounded to try anything else. Not to mention the very sloppy move of revealing your true identity by using your Noble Phantasm.”

Saber growled as she rose, using her sword to try and gain more balance. “As long… as I still draw breath… I will not falter.” She gritted her teeth as raised her blade to the enemy. “You will not touch my Master again… as long as I breathe.”

“That can be very easily arranged, my dear.” Caster smiled, dusting off his suit. “Enslaving you was really just more convenient for us because you were in a position where you couldn’t refuse. Thankfully, however, we have no real use for you. Don Diego, if you would?”

“Gladly, Maestro.” Assassin nodded, readying his blade.

“Wait a second, Caster is your Master, Assassin?” asked Saber.

“What can I say? I’m a rule-breaker.” Caster shrugged. “Now then, if you will?” He snapped his fingers and Assassin lunged at Saber when the doors suddenly burst open.

“Scuse me, Saber. False Saber.” The blur smirked as it charged and blocked Assassin’s sword with his spear, revealing it to be Rider. Following directly behind were Jessie and Abram, the former launching a large fireball at Caster, though he quickly dispelled it off to one side with a wave of his baton.

“Excellent timing, Rider.” Saber smiled at her fellow as she fell back to her knees. Abram and Jessie quickly slipped in to provide aid; Jessie picked Saber up off her knees and Abram slung Ben over his shoulder. “I trust he’s explained the situation to you?”

“Yeah and in all honesty, it’s kind of a shock.” Jessie nodded. “You got this, Rider?”

“For now, absolutely.” Rider nodded, clanging weapons with the fencer. “Though I must admit, that’s generous. This fellow’s fair with a blade.”

“Ah-ha-ha, gracias amigo,” Assassin smirked. Quickly, Rider bashed him off to one side and ran out with him, barring the doors to the church with a large stone.

“Time to go!” Quickly he led the others back out to his chariot near the train tracks. “All aboard!” Quickly everyone boarded the chariot and Rider took the reins. “Hang on back there, Sweetheart! HYAH!” With haste, the great hero’s horses thundered down the street toward home. Barely conscious, Ben knew that if the entire war was going to be like this, he was in for a rough ride.


	8. Rages of War

Elsewhere that night, Amelia was more than certain a small familiar had been sent after her ever since she had left her mansion to go out on the city. It was the sort of surveillance that she reveled in, because she knew that if someone was watching her, it was because she was such a massive threat, and rightly so as the Ezburn family was one of the most dangerous mage families in the southwest, maybe even the world. But it was such a simple familiar that she had noticed it from a mile away, but she decided to give whoever had sent it (which, given what it was, it was obviously a Klaassen design) the benefit of the doubt and pretend she _hadn’t_ noticed yet. She wasn’t in much of a rush either as she wandered up the street toward the Cathedral; neutral ground and center of the Holy Grail War. However, she had important, _private_ business in the cathedral which she was not in the mood to have anyone else spying on her conducting business.

With that, she simply spun around and summoned a spectral arrow which she shot straight through the pigeon familiar that was flying above her. And in a small burst of mana, it exploded and scattered feathers everywhere. With her stalker dealt with, she threw the doors open and strolled in like she was the Pope. Her eyes darted around the large church and was enraged when she didn’t see anyone expecting her.

“Show yourself, preacher,” she called in rage. “I know you’re here somewhere.” She crossed her arms; she could tolerate waiting for someone, but not disrespect.

Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to worry about that as she heard a book snap shut in one of the front pews. Amelia looked to the pew and saw both Anderson and Ruler, though she didn’t recognize the latter. “Good evening, dear child.” Anderson smiled as he stood and walked toward the altar. “It’s rather late for confession, don’t you think? What brings you to the House of God?”

Amelia raised an eyebrow and sniffed at the man, crossing her arms. “…Well. This is a surprise. When I registered for the war, I never would’ve thought an Executor would be the administrator.”

Ruler raised an eyebrow at this as he walked over as well. “Sharp little one, aren’t we?” he smiled. “What gave it away?”

Amelia glanced over at Ruler with a disapproving look on her face. “His smell. He reeks of blood. Moreso than any man should, even a Mage.” She smirked. “I've only ever met one other Executor before in my life, and he left me with a question that perhaps you can answer.” She uncrossed her arms, placing a hand on her hip as she gave Anderson a questioning look. “Do you actually believe in the crap you spout? Everything I've ever learned about Executors says that they do the exact opposite of what they teach. How can you call yourselves holy men like that?”

Anderson chuckled at this. “And what do you know of Executors? We may be known to Mages, but our work within the church is kept a secret from the outside world and considered sacred to those who _do_ know.”

Amelia scoffed. “Do you even know who I am, fool? I am the new head-mage of the Ezburn clan. We possess magical knowledge far surpassing that of any of the other rats in this valley. Now if you’re going to answer my question, I’d suggest you do it promptly.”

“Well… if you insist.” Anderson shrugged. “This is the simple answer; to be part of _any_ branch of the church, you must firmly believe in its teachings. An Executor’s job is an extension of that, acting as a _force_ of God rather than as His _word_. We exist with a purpose, and we execute upon that purpose. Our beliefs never fall into question with our duty. And that is all you need to know about an Executor, my dear.”

Amelia gave a dry humorless chuckle. “You’re a terrible liar, priest.”

“Well, it _is_ a sin.” Anderson shrugged. “Now, not that I don't enjoy this repartee, but I assume you came here for some reason _other_ than simply questioning my role in God’s house?”

“Hm? Oh right. Sorry, I got a bit off-track.” Amelia nodded. “I came here to find the Judge for the War, but since all I could find was an Executor, I suppose you’ll have to do.”

“Now that’s hardly called for.” Ruler smirked as he looked at his pocket-watch.

“Perhaps I should just skip to my point.” Amelia took her glove off and showed the priest a symbol that looked like two ornate pinecone designs with a pole plunged diagonally through both of them, although one of the pinecones was faded. “My Commands Seals have been damaged and I’ve come seeking their repair.”

“‘Damaged’?” Anderson raised an eyebrow as she looked at her Command Seals. “I see no sign of damage, only the faded remains of a Command Seal having been used.”

“Clearly during your battle with Saber and Rider the other day.” Ruler noted.

“Is there really such a difference?” Amelia shrugged, putting her glove back on. “One of my Command Seals is no longer viable, and I request this be remedied.”

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid this request is impossible to complete.” Anderson shrugged, turning away from the young mage. “Command Seals are not simple trinkets that can be given or returned. They’re not candy; they’re extremely powerful tools of every Master and they are to be used wisely and with care. If I was to return a spent Command Seal to _you_ , I would have to do so for every Master in the war.”

“Not to mention that if he does it for you _once_ , you’ll undoubtedly expect he do it for you _every time_ after that.” Ruler noted as he checked the handle of his cane.

“So you deny my request for a replenished Command Seal?” Amelia asked.

“I offer you no further answer but the one I’ve already given.” Anderson nodded. “If you've come for Command Seals, I’m afraid you shall leave disappointed regardless.”

“I see.” Amelia nodded, giving a grim smile. “Well, I can’t say I wasn’t expecting _some_ resistance to the idea. Thankfully enough…” She summoned a small familiar-shade to her left hand. “I came prepared.” With that, her Magic Circuits flared as the shade formed into a large golden bident with red spear-points, with which she charged aiming to gouge out both Anderson’s eyes.

Just before the points reached Anderson himself, a blade suddenly caught between the points and stopped the weapon. Amelia looked and saw Ruler wielding the blade, revealed to be held by the handle of his cane, in one hand and the body of said cane in his other hand. “Attacking the adjudicator of the Holy Grail War? Tut-tut.” he smiled. “This can only end poorly for you, my dear.”

“I’m already a Master. And you can’t take that away from me.” Amelia smirked. “Besides, I know all about you, Ruler. And once I kill this prick, I’ll not only have _my_ third Command Seal back, but I’ll have _yours_ , too. And with him dead, no one else will be able to hide behind either of you.”

“Sound reasoning.” Ruler relented. Then in one fluid movement, he moved his blade off to one side and allowed the spear to slide along it before he knocked it to the ground with his scabbard and put the edge of his blade to Amelia’s throat. “However, you won’t find either of us easy to defeat. I’ve bested far more vicious criminals than you before tea.”

“Not to mention that the lives of us Executors are filled with dangers, most far greater than anyone like you,” Anderson smirked as he retrieved a Thompson/Center G2 Contender pistol from the altar and pointed it at her head.

“You seem to be forgetting one thing.” Amelia smiled insanely and snapped her fingers, prompting the doors to burst open and Berserker to charge in towards the preacher, knocking him and Ruler into the wall with one strong backhand. “I have a Berserker.” With that, she and Berserker walked toward the two as Anderson coughed up some blood as Amelia smirked and kicked the gun away. “Now… we can do this the easy way or the hard way; either you replenish _my_ Command Seal and surrender yours to me willingly or I can take them off your cold dead hand.”

“You don’t plan on letting us live either way, so neither choice is really worthwhile, I’d say.” Ruler shrugged as he pulled himself up. “So either we die on our backs like dogs or on our feet like warriors. I think you know which choice we’ll be going with.”

“Am I really that transparent?” Amelia asked with a smirk.

“No, I just have better eyes.” Ruler smirked, clearly remembering his golden days in London. “For example, I know what you’re thinking right this second; you need him alive for the Command Seals to be transferred, but that doesn’t mean you need his arm to be attached, so you’re planning on having Berserker simply rip his arm off so you can steal them.”

“Quite clever, Ruler.” Amelia smiled. “And I assume there’s something wrong with that plan that won’t allow it to work?”

“Indeed. Namely a feature of my class.” Ruler smiled as he started to remove his coat. “For you see, while you Masters may command only _one_ Servant individually…” He then dropped his coat to show a plethora of Seals across his body glowing under his shirt. “I command them _all_. Thus, I could very easily order our friend Beowulf here to stand down and abandon this idiotic plan of yours, have him take you with him and leave. Then, of course, you would use your _second_ Command Seal to overrule me, but then I would overrule _you_ right back, leaving you with only the Destruction Seal, which is of course thoroughly worthless in this situation.”

“But then _you’d_ be without two Command Seals as well, wouldn’t you?” Amelia asked.

“No, see I don’t _use_ Command Seals. These are just for show; the Ruler-Class just orders Servants to do something and they do it.” Ruler smiled. “And unless you’d like to see proof of that for yourself, I’d suggest you both leave right away.”

“You’re bluffing,” Amelia said in concern, not sure if even she could believe that.

Ruler narrowed his eyes as he hooked his coat and tossed it to his free hand with his cane. “I'm Sherlock Holmes.” Clearly, that was more than enough to scare Amelia. With a single wave of her hand, she and Berserker moved to leave. “Oh, and on your way out Beowulf, if you wouldn’t mind; The door? Wouldn’t want to become _too_ much like Grendel, now would we?” Berserker growled at Ruler but acquiesced, closing the doors to the chapel behind him.

“Eloquently handled, Mr. Holmes.” Anderson pulled himself from the wall and brushed off his cassock. “You’ve just saved my life. And with luck, the whole War.”

“Hardly an issue, Anderson.” Ruler replied calmly, tugging on the cuffs of his shirt. “The only issue now is the Ezburn girl’s next prey.”

“Namely?”

“The head of the Saber-Class Servant and her Master… Benjamin Klaassen.”

**Later…**

_The battle was over. The last battle she'd ever fight. It had been taxing, she had put everything on the line for this one. She had fought with her convictions and honor on the line, but she'd never know if she had done the right thing. Her body was damaged beyond repair, not even the magic of her oldest friend would fix these wounds. She crossed a battlefield, scarred with the remains of might and magic that had laid waste to it, and the bodies of friend and foe alike. If she stopped now, she would never get up again, and there was only one place that she wished to die. It wasn't until the sun had set and the moon was held in the sky that she reached her destination, managing to stay on her feet that long. The massive trail of blood she had left behind coated the moors as she walked, making it seem like she had just been gutted as it spilled from her wounds. She came upon a small field of flowers, planted around a statue of an old king that her friends had once worshiped in her stead and against which a fallen young woman in heavy iron armor laid. As she approached, the power in her body vanished and her blood remained, splashing against the grass and flowers. She came before the statue, sinking her massive sword into the ground in front of the knight for support as she knelt before it. A breeze blew by, scattering petals to the wind as she paid her penance. She knew not if she had done enough, and if she hadn't she would accept that punishment. She deserved to burn in the fires of Hell for her actions, flames so hot that even her most ambitious knight would feel their burn. She looked up at the face of the cross, hoping for some small hint of forgiveness, or sign that her actions had been just. “I have done everything to save your Kingdom from ruin and despair...” She uttered quietly as she lowered her head once more. “My body is weakened, damaged, and ruined. I can do no more to save it... I only hope it was enough to stop what I have started... So that you may finally rest easy...” The stone statue gave no reply and nor did the fallen knight, and the wind slowly came to a stop around her. A small smile appeared on the warrior's face. She accepted whatever punishment came her way next as her life began to slowly fade away. Anything to make up for having killed her heir._

Ben groaned as his eyes slowly opened, making out the old blank wall of his bedroom. He blinked a few times in confusion before getting up. “Those must’ve been Saber’s last moments.” he murmured. He thought back and remembered to his readings of _Le Morte D’arthur_ and the other tellings of her stories which ended when mortally wounded and surrounded by fallen friends and enemies, Arthur bowed to pay penance before the fallen Mordred when he had fallen upon the grave of Uther. This dream, however, made it feel so much more… vivid than how the stories had described it. He had felt every emotion that flashed through Artoria’s mind; the sorrow of losing what little family she still had left, the anger of her throne having been taken from under her, and the pain of her actions.

The legends of Arthur Pendragon and those who followed her were more often than not tragedies; tales of sorrow and death, seeking redemption for past mistakes. And in the end, Arthur is betrayed and struck down, never knowing if her actions helped save Britannia or not; she falls to her own father’s blade held by her heir before any of it can come to fruition and the legend ends with her being sealed away on Avalon.

Ben had to wonder; did Saber still carry the weight of her regrets or had she let them come to pass? He had no idea of knowing any of that for sure; so far all his interactions with the knight told him that she was fine, that she carried herself with a smile and sense of dedication that put him at ease. Artoria had vowed to be his sword in this war, and that so long as he was willing to do serious battle, she would always be by her side. But then again, from what he had read, he could tell Artoria was good at hiding her emotions; she stood with a friendly smile before her people, saved all those she could and moved on back to Camelot before she could linger in any one place for too long. And while those around her saw the bright, smiling warrior who was their king and savior, Artoria’s emotions were clearly always a wretched turmoil that threatened to destroy her.

Scenes of her despairing in her bedchamber, of her hiding her misery for the sake of others, going hungry so her friends could eat their fill, charging madly into battle so others wouldn’t have to, and simply letting her sorrow act as her ambition for her whole life. If there was anyone in all Britannia who could put such a good mask over how they felt, it was Artoria.

“Saber…” Ben murmured. He turned to the place in the bed Saber had slept a few nights ago to find her absent. Then the visions of last night came thundering back: everything from the battle against Caster and Jane; Saber being tortured by _his_ pain, attempting to destroy Caster to save him and taking that hit from Zorro. “Holy shit, that’s right!” He suddenly realized from that part that Saber was badly injured and that he had no idea where she was.

Panicking, he jumped out of bed only for his legs to suddenly give out from under him. “Gah! Fuck!” He quickly steadied himself by slapping a hand to the edge of his desk. His head was swimming as he ran a hand along his face, remembering just how much power he had expended yesterday. Given that, he should’ve realized his body would be like this; racked with pain and- Suddenly his eyes shot back open in realization; the pain was gone. He stood back up and placed a hand on his neck, expecting to feel the numb pulse of pain that usually emanated from his spine, but it was completely absent. In fact, aside from a bit of disorientation from having just woken up, he found that he was fine… almost _too_ fine.

He shook it off, realizing that while significant, it wasn’t entirely important right now; Saber was wounded and he had to go see her. He grabbed up his glasses and ran out of his room upstairs to the living room. Once he reached the top of the stairs to see Rider standing in the sunroom looking out into the yard with Ben’s parents. He glanced back and smiled at the young man. “Ah, you’re awake. Good. We were worried about you.”

“Thanks but what happened last night? It’s all kinda blurry. I remember you guys saving us, but…” He shook his head. “Look forget it, what about Saber; is she okay?”

“She’s _alive_ , but she’s not in any sort of shape to fight right now. She should be in the second guest room; Abram’s tending to her.” Mom reassured.

“Great. Thanks.” Ben quickly slid back down the stairs to the room where a faint glow was emanating from the doorway. He slipped in to see Saber lying on the bed with a runic circle on the blankets she laid under and Abram channeling his mana into it. “You okay, Saber?”

“Fine.” She was lying; Ben could hear the weakness in her voice but her smile comforted her. “Nice to see you up and about.”

“That fight consumed almost every ounce of her mana, not to mention all the wounds.” Abram shrugged. “Jessie had Rider patch you up and put you to bed as soon as we got home and I set up this seal to start healing _her_. Gotta say, Caster’s magic is no joke; it’s been interfering with the healing so much that there’s hardly been any progress, and even then Zorro's Mark won't fade no matter how much mana I try to use, but at least you’re out of the dangerous part now.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t save your friends Ben.” Saber allowed her face to fall as she apologized, absent-mindedly scratching at the Z on her arm. “Caster caught me off-guard and he was far more powerful than I had expected.”

“I’m not blaming you, Saber.” Ben sat down in a chair next to the bed. “I’m the one who got caught in such an obvious trap. If it weren’t for that, you might’ve been able to take him down and the guys would’ve been okay.”

“I’m the Servant here Ben. I should be the one with the power to overcome this madness.” Ben could tell this guilt Saber felt was eating her up from inside.

“A Servant is only as powerful as their Master.” Abram brought up. “Something went wrong. Accept it.” Ben scowled at his older brother; was this meant to help them feel better? “What’s important here is that we’re all still alive. Which means there’s still a chance to stop Caster and save the others; we just need to recharge and come up with a plan.”

Ben nodded. “You’re right bro. Once you have Saber healed, we can plan for our next move.”

“Assuming Caster doesn’t come to us.” Saber brought up. “He knows we’re wounded and I doubt he plans on just letting us recover in peace. Not to mention that, due to my Noble Phantasm, he knows my true identity now. And then there’s the news Abram told me.”

“What news?” asked Ben.

“Ezburn’s on the move,” Abram growled. “I sent a couple of familiars out to El Dorado to watch her and it looks like she made her way into town. Followed her all the way to the cathedral until she saw one of them and killed it. Still had one on her though; she tried to attack Anderson and Ruler.”

“What? Why?” asked Ben.

“No idea; you know how horrible rats' hearing is, but if she knows we’re watching her, she could attack at any moment.” Jessie shrugged as she walked in. “I’m having Rider keep a look-out for now, but we may need to be on guard in case either of them launches a full-out assault.”

Ben clenched a fist at this news; he knew Ezburn was crazy but he didn’t know she was crazy enough to attack the adjudicator of the war. Not only that, but she and Caster were both likely to take action soon. Not to mention that there were still Archer and Lancer to worry about. And Saber was in no condition to take anyone on in a fight. At least three Servants, who all wanted Ben dead, could take any opportunity they wanted to strike now while they were weak.

“Hey Ben, did you seriously come straight here once you woke up?” Abram asked.

“Huh? Oh uh… yeah?” Ben shrugged.

“It’s almost 1:30; you’ve been asleep for a while.” Jessie shrugged, looking at her watch. “You might wanna get yourself cleaned up. We’re planning on hunkering down here for the day until Saber’s healed enough to fight.”

Ben glanced at Saber. “I’ll be fine Master.” she nodded. “Your brother’s a very skilled healer and we have some free time so I suggest we take advantage of it. Go tend to yourself; I’ll be there should you call.”

“Alright.” Ben shrugged and left for his own chambers, resolving that Saber should be fine under his brother’s care. He resolved indeed to take a shower as he smelled disgusting, and as he was undressing, he checked his back in the mirror to see that thankfully, the immense power in his activation of that Command Seal had done nothing to injure him any further, but it hadn’t done anything to heal him either. Giving a simple groan, he downed a small gulp of his medication potion and then simply stripped and jumped into the shower, sighing in relief as the hot water rolled over him and washed away the dirt and pain of the battle last night.

Unfortunately, remembering what had happened in the compound made his face fall. “ _Some Master I turned out to be._ ” He was in such a rush to help Josh that he hadn’t seen how obvious that trap was, and it nearly ended in Saber getting captured and/or destroyed. If it hadn’t been for Rider and the others, he and Saber would be dead by now. But a few things still didn’t make sense; he knew for a fact that Jane wasn’t a Mage, and yet there she was commanding the Caster-Class Servant to do her will. _Was_ Jane a Mage?  And if so, why? Was it because Ben had inadvertently introduced her to the Holy Grail War she had no stake in thanks to that fight with Berserker?

That reminded him; why _had_ all these battles conspired against him? He’d never even met Amelia before, and yet for some reason, she was out for his blood. Caster had two of his friends held hostage and was more than likely to target him. And Lancer had even less reason to target than either of the other two.

Ben growled and slammed a fist against the wall in rage, nearly cracking the tile; in only a few weeks, his entire world had been flipped upside down and he had no idea what to think; he knew that fighting might mean he’d have to kill an old friend of his, but at the same time, if he just surrendered and allowed himself to be executed, there was no guarantee that his other friends and family would be spared from the impending bloodbath. He took a deep breath and tried his best to decide as he wiped his face. He cupped his hands to catch some water and tossed it back into his face, the hot water shaking him from this self-pitying stupor he found himself stuck in. Quickly, he finished washing himself off and walked out wrapped himself in his new sleeveless bathrobe before he changed in his room and checked his phone; his friends’ search had turned up nothing as predicted, even with the ever-observant Sarah having joined up. Not observant enough to see that Ben was a Mage, but either way Ben smiled as he saw that they were all okay. He provided his own update, including that he was sorry he hadn’t met up with anyone recently.

Once he had sent it, he quickly dressed and wandered back upstairs, to find Rider at the table with a glass of Greek wine in his hand.

“You’re worried. Understandably.” Ben was surprised at this and looked at the lance-wielding Greek.

“Am I that obvious?” Rider smirked at this question and took a small swig from the glass.

“I was on the front lines of the Trojan War, remember?” he smiled and pulled out an old drachma, admiring his past life. “I’ve seen plenty of men trying to hide their fear on the battlefield, Agamemnon among them.” He smirked at that last bit, now happy to have some closure about what happened in the war. “But then, I can’t exactly blame you; things are tense right now, so taking what little downtime we have will be more than welcomed.”

“Well yeah, but I just-” Ben shrugged as he sat across from him. “I guess I just never realized how much weight I had on my shoulders as the new head Mage of the family. I mean Amelia heard of me before I ever even knew her family _existed_ , and Lancer probably attacked me for similar reasons. But Jane and Josh… they probably just got mixed up in all this because of me. All my life, I’ve tried to avoid the Holy Grail War and now all that work has just been thrown back in my face. And now I’m stuck here, helpless.”

Rider smirked and downed the last of his wine before standing and stretching. “Well, I can’t say that I blame you for feeling like that as I don’t exactly know what sort of life you’ve led since I haven’t really known you all that long. What I _can_ say however is that from what I  _have_ seen as of now, you’ve been willing to do all in your current power to accommodate. Even without the necessary strength, you seem to want what’s best for your guests. The first day we arrived, you and the others showed me and Saber around town to acclimate us to the battleground of the war and you; our new Masters. You agreed wholeheartedly to fight with Saber for all our sakes, _and_ you still managed to find time for that party two nights ago. I’d honestly be shocked if you ditched your friends rather than trying to help them. Think hard about it and it doesn’t really matter what reasons our enemies have for attacking you _personally_. What matters is whether they’re afraid of who you are, no personal transgressions you may have slighted against them. They know you’re a Mage to be feared even if you don’t know it yourself.” Ben smiled at this and Rider smiled right on back. “Take that to heart, boy. If they attack you personally, it means they fear you. Use that to your advantage; make them _know_ their fear is well-justified.”

“And if they out-class me?” Ben’s question was logical and he quickly elaborated on it. “Amelia's seen me on the battlefield before, I can barely use any real magic; all I can do is toss out alchemic bombs. I don’t stand a chance against any of my enemies.”

“Alone? Absolutely; you’d be dead within two seconds.” Rider shrugged. “But you’re not alone in this war, boy. You have the Northers family, your brother and two of the most powerful Servant-Classes in the whole Grail War itself on your side. Take it from someone who knows, kid; your bonds are your strongest weapons.”

Ben blinked. “So… you’re saying that we’re going to win the war with the power of friendship?”

Rider stopped and looked at Ben with a confused look on his face. “Well, I- I mean I guess that’s _one_ way to say it, yeah.”

Ben snickered. “Sounds like an old shoujo anime.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Rider shrugged, apparently not understanding that reference. “But yeah; believe me, I wasn’t the only one who had hesitations about allying myself with you. But I must say now that my concerns were misplaced. I’ve never felt stronger in my entire existence, and that’s saying a lot coming from me.”

“Thanks, Rider.” Ben smiled, shaking his hand. “It means a lot.”

“Think nothing of it, my boy.” Rider smiled. “I was just being honest. And if I may continue to be, you honestly remind me very much of Patroclus from the war.”

Ben’s eyes popped at that, as he remembered the implications from that part of _The Iliad_. “Uh, not too much right?”

Rider chuckled. “Relax. Just think of me as a confidant.” Ben smiled at that and left. He knew that if the team’s plan worked, Saber and Rider would have to do battle at the end of the war but she felt no animosity toward the great warrior. Ben really couldn’t have asked for better allies in the war.

Unfortunately, the next few hours had dragged on and on for the young man; between the tension of not knowing whether or not an enemy was about to attack and hoping for Saber’s quick recovery, Ben found himself wandering around his property looking for something to occupy him. He had spent a rather long time just sitting quietly in the guest room with his dog Mavis by his side watching as his brother healed Saber. Finally, her wounds were healed at dusk but she was still tired and required rest, so Ben tucked her into his bed while he went out for an evening walk across town.

He was gravely confused as he approached the plaza and a light mist fell around him… though this confusion was significantly lessened when he sensed a powerful mana aura emanating from the mist. He rolled his eyes and looked behind him, allowing a small blade to slip from his sleeve into his hand. “I know you’re there.” His suspicions were confirmed by an inane chuckling down the street… which he recognized. “Isaac?” Then out of nowhere, a small girl with white hair wearing black shot out of a store with a massive knife in her hand, which Ben quickly blocked and spun to engage. “Ah! Lemme guess. Assassin, right?” The girl didn’t say anything but the insane look on her face and the knives said everything; this was definitely the Assassin. She quickly jumped up out of sight and Ben ducked for cover under a tree. “Great. Just what I needed tonight.”

“What’s the matter, little Master?” Assassin smirked sadistically. “Aren’t you going to summon your Servant?”

“Aren’t _you_ going to summon your Master?” Ben smirked.

“I’m afraid my Master isn’t here right now,” Assassin smirked.

“I’m right here, Assassin!” that chuckling voice from earlier yelled.

“No. She’s not.” Assassin smirked, tossing a barrage of black scalpels toward Ben which he quickly started dodging.

“Wait, is that Isaac? Is your Master Isaac, Assassin?” he asked.

“Are you referring to Isaac Tompkins? Heir to the withering Tompkins mage-bloodline?” Assassin smirked, her voice echoing around the plaza. “Brother of the lovely, caring Sarah Tompkins? Never heard of him.”

“Oh what the hell, ya little bitch?!”

“Yeah, that’s definitely Isaac.” Ben groaned.

“I am probably not Isaac!”

“Then shut up!”

“You shut up!” Ben rolled his eyes and dove to block as Assassin attacked him, a crazed look in her eye.

She managed to get in a good slash across his cheek and licked the blood from her blade before Ben managed to knock it out of her hand into a tree. “WHOO! That’s right! Keep that adrenaline comin’, tiny! **Power through the pain!** "

“Impressive, Mister,” she said sadistically. “Not many have been able to stand up to me this long.”

“Don’t think your reverse-pedophilia can knock me off, Assassin,” Ben smirked. “As long as I can stand, I won’t be defeated.”

“‘Defeated’?” Assassin smirked. “My little friend, you’ve got it wrong. From the moment you laid your eyes on me… you were already dead.” Suddenly another barrage of large kitchen knives shot out of nowhere from behind Ben and peppered his back, making him scream and fall to the ground.

“That defies physics!” he yelled in pain.

Assassin looked at him with a forced pout on her face. “You look familiar. You’re a friend of Sarah’s, aren’t you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Ben growled. He swung his blade at her, but Assassin quickly deflected it and moved to grab him from the back, knife to his throat.

“If you are the one she mentioned… then your soul must be very full,” she said sadistically. “Which is good… because I’m hungry.”

“Then I’m afraid you’ll remain so tonight, my dear!” Ben was surprised by this other voice, and even more so when a sudden hail of crossbow bolts shot out of nowhere and dotted the ground around Ben, prompting Assassin to fall back to safety. Then a young man with orange hair and green eyes wearing green robes jumped down from the monument in the center of the plaza to Ben. And he instantly knew who this guy was by the purple crossbow strapped to his right wrist.

“What the- Archer? What’re you doing here?”

“Saving you, what does it look like?” Archer continued firing at Assassin to try and drive her away, but she only dodged a few of them; blocking the others with her knives.

“I must admit you’re not exactly who I was expecting to show up, Archer,” Assassin growled; blade ready. “But I will not allow you to let me go hungry tonight.”

Archer cracked a smile. “I’m afraid, dear child, that you make the mistake of thinking I won’t destroy you.” His bow automatically cocked and he aimed at Assassin. “You are a fellow Servant, and if my Master is to win the Holy Grail War, then you must die. Besides, I hardly care to allow the weak to fall. Leave now or you _and_ your Master die.”

Assassin growled but left as ordered. Suddenly someone else came out of the shadows to Ben’s side. And they were apparently stunned to see him. “Ben?!”

Ben looked and was stunned as well by the familiar girl he saw at his side. “Emily?!”


End file.
